Family Matters
by SammyMae
Summary: When Rangeman agrees to help out the FBI and Vinnie closes up shop, Connie, Lula, Steph and Tink have to work as a team to bring down a human trafficker with a seriously scary side hobby. When Joe unwittingly draws Terri Gillman into the picture and Ranger calls Jeanne Ellen in to assist, things start to get interesting. M mostly for language.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Me again! So this is the next Tink and Steph story. The good news is that I know how it ends. There is a point and I have the whole plot and everything figured out. Bad news is it's only half written. So with that in mind I won't be posting the whole story in a week like I did the last time. I'll probably post twice a week. I would love a beta if anyone is interested! Hope you enjoy! And because it's the right thing to do... I don't own anyone except for Tink. Everyone else belongs to JE and any mistakes are mine.**

**RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS**

"Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy." I guessed. Meagan Santos, AKA Tink or The Pixie, stopped humming.

"Yes!" Meagan and I high fived. I started humming.

"Easy. That's Hey Jude." She giggled. "You won't get this one." She hummed for a bit. I sat there trying to figure if out.

**_Thunk. Thunk. Thunk._**

Meagan and I looked at Joe as he banged his head off of the steering wheel. "You okay Joe?" Meagan asked, "You're going to set off the airbag."

"I'm counting on it. For two hours you have been playing this game. Two fucking hours. I am on the stakeout from hell. I am regretting inviting Stephanie along. If Manoso hadn't...Hey was it Rap God?"

"Well done Morelli!" Meagan gave him a gentle punch to the arm.

"Great I win. Now stop humming and eat a doughnut." He said and shoved a pink pastry box at her.

"We can't. Steph and I are doing a cleanse." Meagan said and handed it back to him. Then we both went into a bit of a daze thinking about jelly doughnuts. "Lester dared us to give up sugar for a week." Morelli had a look that looked both horrified and amused at the same time. Like he didn't know whether he thought he should laugh or pity us.

"How long have you been on this cleanse?"

"Uhhh three days now." Meagan said. She sounded as sad as I did and she wasn't even married to a health nut like I was. Lester was just jealous of our blatant flouting of the no junk rule in the office. Morelli burst out laughing and dialled someone on the cars bluetooth.

"What." Hey that was Ranger! He sounded like he had been sleeping. I checked the clock, normally he was still working at 7:30. Strange.

"You poor bastard. Lester dared them to go off sugar for a week." Joe said with barely contained mirth.

"I'll kill him." And then he disconnected. The smug look on Joe's face nearly made me want to punch him.

"Explain." Meagan and I said at the same time.

"Cupcake we were together last time you went off sugar. You nearly killed me. Remember I needed to sleep in the guest room?"

"Oh my god. I forgot about that!" I cried blushing furiously. "I broke Ranger. He didn't go running today. He practically begged me to help on this stakeout."

"Huh so that's why he had me school Cal on the mats for watching Star Trek in the comm room." Meagan said. "I wondered why he did that."

"Eat a doughnut Cupcake. Wait to do your cleanse until he goes away again."

"Oh no no no no." Meagan shook her head emphatically, "We aren't doing that. We are already almost half way there. I'm dying. I am not starting over. Besides. I have a lot riding on this. Les and I have a bet. If Ranger isn't up to it, I'll take her to Pleasure Treasures. She can survive four more days."

"What about you Princess? Where have you shifted your sugar cravings too?" Joe asked.

"I feel fine actually, I just miss the sugar." She froze, "Hey! That's your skip Steph!" I sat up straighter. My skip was walking into the house we were watching.

"Alright Cupcake, Meagan and I need you to wait until he comes out. He's supposed to be coming out with Saunders. If he does I can haul Saunders in for violating his parole. But I need proof first okay?"

"Yup uh huh got it." I said. Meagan and Joe were here because the FBI wanted Saunders. After their work wiping out the Slayers both here and in LA, Joe had been offered a position with the FBI. He was working in the Trenton office. Meagan, who was technically still FBI on permanent loan to Rangeman where she was an executive, had agreed to be his partner. Since Joe rarely worked with a partner this worked out well for both of them. She wasn't couped up in the office all the time and Joe had someone to watch his back when he needed it. Tonight he needed help and it just so happened that one of my skips, one Barney Knowles, was supposed to be here. The door opened and three guys came out.

"Okay we have some action here. Shit Steph, isn't that Morgan Fiorelli?" Meagan asked.

"Yes it is and he's one of our highest bond skips right now, he's worth $250k to Rangeman." I said. She called Ranger and had him email her the capture papers.

"Ladies, what's he wanted for? Should we be calling in backup here?" Joe asked.

"He's wanted for being a generally awful human being." I said, "I don't even know how he was granted bail let alone why Vinnie bonded him out. Rape, murder, assault, multiple weapons violations, oh and this is fun, aggravated sexual assault, seems he had some fun with hand tools." I read his file a few days before and promptly dropped it onto Ranger's desk. I'd been training with Tink for half a year and I could handle myself but no way was I going anywhere near Fiorelli.

"He needs to get off the streets like yesterday." Meagan said. "The other two are non violent. I think we can handle them." She put her hand on the door, "Shall we? Before this party breaks up?" Meagan, Joe and I climbed out of the car. Meagan and Joe showed their ID and the scofflaws scattered. Meagan took off in a dead sprint after Fiorelli. Knowles started running towards the back of the house but realized he was about to corner himself and suddenly veered off in the same direction as Fiorelli and Tink. Joe went after Saunders.

I saw Meagan round the block after Fiorelli and Knowles was hot on their heels. He was struggling to get a gun out of his pants while he was running. He was being hindered by the fact that the extra few inches the gun added to his waistline were what was keeping his pants up and he had to hold onto his jeans while trying to unsnag the weapon. He finally succeeded as he was rounding the corner.

"Tink! Kowles is on your six. He's armed!" I said into the radio clipped on my vest.

"It's under control." She returned. I finally rounded the corner, thinking that I really needed to run more, when I saw Tink. She had her weapon out, standing with one foot firmly on Fiorelli's jewels while he lay groaning on the ground. She had her gun aimed at Fiorelli with one hand and she was using the other to grip painfully on a pressure point in Knowles shoulder. She saw me, "I dropped my other cuffs back there, can I use yours on this asshole?" She asked. I walked over and cuffed Knowles. "Sit!" She said and Knowles sat down like the good dog he was. "Stay!" He did as he was told. She finally relieved the pressure off of Fiorelli's pride and told him to roll over. He tried to comply but it wasn't fast enough for Tink so she assisted him. She might not have been gentle when she cuffed Fiorelli.

"Hey Joe can you bring the car around? We've got our guys." I said into the Radio.

"Just loading Saunders in now,". He said, "be there in five." Meagan was now sitting on a trussed up Fiorelli like he was a park bench and he was groaning. She had her arms resting on her knees, her gun relaxed in her hands.

"Bitch! I'll get you for th-unnh". Meagan hit him almost casually and he went lights out.

"I think I've figured out where your sugar energy goes." I said.

"Oh?"

"Umm yeah. I think the no sugar thing is causing you to have some anger management issues." I said.

Knowles nodded frantically. She looked at him and then considered her current seat, "You might have a point." she agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: So I had a minor procedure done this morning and am bored and resting and thought I'd get another chapter up. I'm going to warn you, I'm kind of off my face on whatever they gave me to knock me out. Its possible it's reflected in the writing. **

**Also there are a couple of things in this chapter that reference some oneshots Ive written about Lester and Meagan. one about an incident in a parking lot and another about how Lester and Meagan meet. **

**Finally and this is completely random and not story related, was watching Cars 2 with my son the other day for the 87th time and had to rewind the movie twice to be sure, there is a car named Carlo Manoso. I kind if cracked up a bit.**

**as always own nothing but the plot and Tink. **

**Update: The end of this chapter got truncated for some reason. I've put it the deleted scene back in and hopefully it works this time. **

**RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS**

We sailed into the Bonds office the next day with both receipts. "He in?" Meagan asked and Connie nodded. She strolled into Vinnie's office without knocking and closed the door.

I took a doughnut from the box on Connie's desk and flopped down on the sofa.

"You know, I don't know if I like it better when she comes in or when Batman does?" Lula said. "They say like almost exactly the same things and they can both make Vinnie squirm. Batman is Fine but she usually brings food. It's a toss up."

"Speaking of food. I thought you guys were off of sugar?" Connie raised an eyebrow at my donut.

"We were but we decided that it would be better for the greater good if we quit the cleanse." I bit into the donut and it was the best damned donut of my life.

"I heard about what Tink did to Fiorelli."

"Yeah well Bobby came and put Pop-Tarts in front of both of us this morning and kicked us out of the office until the sugar kicked in. He wouldn't say why but I heard him muttering something about Meagan and Ranger having impulse control issues due to sleep deprivation. Woody had a broken nose this morning, and, well, Fiorelli..."

"I thought she was aggressive due to lack of sugar?"

"Nope. That's lack of sleep. Lack of sugar apparently effects her the same way it does me. Lester looks like hell but had a huge smile on his face at the morning meeting. Bobby kept looking like he wanted to slap him."

"She don't look tired." Lula said skeptically.

"Good Makeup."

"Ah."

"Credit where it's due." Connie said, "Ranger hung in there. I mean besides his little nap there yesterday."

"You should take him away on a boat or something where you got no donuts and he can't hurt anyone. See how long he can last. Be like a science experiment." Lula reached for the donuts and I felt the tingle on the back of my neck and knew Ranger had heard that.

I turned and the look he gave me was scorching.

"Meagan is already getting your skips." I said with a gulp, "She's in with Vinnie making sure he doesn't bond out Fiorelli again. She said she was going to threaten him with castration if he did."

Ranger grinned.

"OH. MY. GOD. I just got the best idea. Like ever." Lula squealed and we all looked at her "Batman go in there with them. Seriously. I wanna see what'll happen if you are both in the same room as Vinnie when she's being all scary and badass." Ranger's grin transformed into a full on sadistic smile. Then he blank faced. He strode across the room and opened the door. We heard a squeak and then a thunk. Meagan laughed and they came out of the office together. Vinnie had fainted.

My cousin Vinnie is slime so we all liked it when bad things happened to Vinnie. It was fun to watch him squirm. Vinnie fainting from pure straight up fear had an extremely high entertainment value.

"OH. I hope he wet himself." Connie said and clapped her hands excitedly, "We should take pictures. We might be able to convince him to give us paid vacation this year."

"Girl, if he hasn't peed himself we just gotta pour water in his lap. He'll never know the difference." Lula said and they cackled as they went back into Vinnie's lair. Ranger was chuckling softly beside me.

"That was fun." he said with an evil grin, "Manita, Lester is coming to pick you up. We have two clients who want a woman's touch with the security systems. I'm taking Steph, you take Les we can meet back up in the office for lunch."

"You mean to tell me that I don't get the pleasure of your wife's company for the rest of the morning? I have to trade her for Les?" Meagan sighed dramatically, "Damn, whatever will I do with myself? I hope my GPS doesn't die and we don't get lost on a secluded section of road."

Ranger just shook his head. He had as much control over her as he did over me. Less in fact because he couldn't persuade her with his body. She only had eyes for his cousin and if Lester could get away with pissing Ranger off for sport, he did.

"By the way, your new cars have arrived." He said, "I appreciate that you didn't go with pink this time." He said. Meagan, on her 21st birthday, had purchased herself a Vintage Mustang Shelby. She had it painted a funky bright metallic pink and she babied it. About two months ago, and I swear I was nowhere in the vicinity at the time, it went to car Heaven. She and Lester had gone to the mall, I don't even want to know what bribe she used to get him there, and she parked it far away from the mall entrance where there were no cars to ding it. A couple driving into the lot in an RV was feeling frisky. I guess the lady of the RV decided that she couldn't wait to perform a certain service on her man and he became distracted, jerked the wheel violently, cornered too hard and the RV tipped right over onto Meagan's car. She had been devastated. For about ten minutes until Lester had shoved a printout from a website in front of her face and she immediately got on the phone to order her new wheels.

"Is he bringing one of them? Which one?" She said with a giant smile on her face.

"You will have to wait and see. They've got all of the usual Rangeman add ons." Just then Lester pulled into the lot. Meagan flew out of the Bond's office and hauled Lester out of the drivers seat. He was laughing as he picked her up and spun her around before he put her in her new SUV.

"What. The. Hell. Is. That?" I managed to get out. If ever an SUV looked badass it was this one. It was like someone had decided that Batman needed a 4x4 and created it. Meagan had opted for black to go with the rest of the Rangeman Vehicles Which only added to the illusion.

"Not officially on the market yet. She had to pull some strings to get one. It's a Lamborghini Urus." Ranger said. Lester closed the door and jogged around to the passenger seat. I could see his smile from here.

I waved to the girls and Ranger and I left the office. I was about to climb into the truck when he spun me around and pinned me up against it. "For the record Babe, I'm up for anything you can throw at me. Bobby is the one who called it off."

"But you were going to kill Lester last night." I protested.

"If," he nipped at the hollow of my throat, "I'd known, we'd have gone offline for the week and I'd have spent it making sure donuts were the last thing you were thinking about."

"Prove it." I challenged. He growled and if it weren't for the audience pressed up against the Bonds Office window I'm pretty sure the truck would have been rocking.

"I have something in the works right now. Pick a place, as soon as it's over, for as long as you think will be necessary, I'm all yours. Do your worst." He gave me another full body scan and pushed off the truck cab and walked around to the driver side. I did a quick check to make sure I was still dressed and that all critical pieces of clothing were still in tact and climbed into the truck.

A few minutes into the drive, when my brain started firing on all cylinders again, I broke the silence in the truck, "I'm going to buy a new car."

"Don't like the options in the garage Babe?" he asked, the corners of his mouth tipped up.

"No, it's not that, it's just that we don't have a car. Rangeman has all kinds of SUV's and stuff but no car. I kind of miss the Turbo." I said.

He didn't say anything and I sighed. After a while he said, "We have to stop at the apartment before we go to our meeting, one of us needs to get out of the uniform and into a suit. Do you want to flip for it?" he asked. Okay so here was a dilemma: Which Ranger was sexier? Badass Mercenary Ranger or Corporate Mega Bucks Ranger? After carefully considering my options I went for Corporate Ranger as he could make the transformation from Batman to Bruce Wayne in like five minutes. I can't go from Bounty Hunter Barbie to Corporate Barbie in anything less than an hour. Minimum.

We pulled into the lot and I had every intention of staying in the truck until Ranger came back down stairs. The donuts hadn't fully hit my system and I was afraid I would pounce on him the minute I saw him in his suit and then we would be late. That plan was shot to hell when I saw three new cars in the lot. My jaw dropped. There were two brand new Porsches in the lot. One was a Black 911 the other a Deep Blue Boxter with a vanity plate that said, BABE. Parked next to it was a deep red, almost black, Lamborghini with a plate that said, TINK.

"I see she put that government bonus to good use." Ranger said mildly as he put the truck in park. We got out of the truck to do a walk around of the new cars.

"She doesn't really do understated does she?" I commented as we took in the insane looking supercar. Ranger shook his head no.

Meagan liked to make a statement. Everyone would know who belonged to this car and nobody would dare touch it. My car however was begging to be blown up, "You know Batman, the vanity plate is cool and all but don't you think you just painted a massive target on that car? I mean _Everyone_ is going to know that's my car."

"No. Everyone is going to know that's my woman's car. They will leave it alone." I eyed him dubiously for a minute. Nobody had thought twice about blowing up his car before. Then I realized that had been when I was with Morelli. Meagan told me once that the seedier side of Trenton didn't really give a shit about cops but were nursing a healthy terror of Ranger. She had a point. We had been married for six whole months and the only stalkers I had were acquired before I became Mrs. Manoso. The only car that had been totalled, besides the Shelby, had been the last Turbo and I am going with that was because of my pre marriage stalker karma and technically Meagan had been driving it when it happened. While I couldn't exactly go walking naked down Stark without fear of molestation, the baddies did tend to think twice about throwing food at me or tossing me into the trash because I was badass through marriage.

Ranger went upstairs to change and I did some research on my phone to see what exactly she was driving. I nearly choked on my tongue when I saw how much the Veneno Roadster was worth. It was time to ask Ranger a question that had been driving me crazy for years.

Ranger came back downstairs five minutes later in a new bespoke black suit and black shirt with a couple of top buttons undone. I momentarily forgot my question and he motioned for me to get into his new car instead of the truck.

"So uhh Ranger. You know how we're married and all that?" I asked once we were out of the lot.

"I seem to remember something happening in Vegas." _Smartass._

"Well you know how you have some secrets that are secrets you can't tell me and then ones you only sorta can't tell me but do anyway?"

"Babe." So this word can mean anything to Ranger. In this case it was "Hurry up and get to the point."

"Where do all the cars come from? I mean shit, there are a few million dollars worth of shiny new vehicles in the garage and they are always brand new and Joe told me once that I don't want to ask where they came from and that I shouldn't look too closely at the VINS."

Ranger came fully out of his driving zone and laughed. Like full on Ranger belly laugh. This is a rare occurrence. It's a joy to see but in this case I wasn't sure if I should be offended or not. Ranger pulled over, unbuckled my seatbelt and dragged me into his lap and kissed me.

"How long have you been waiting to ask me that question?" He said once he got himself under control though he was still smiling.

"Ummm since I squished the Boxter." I said.

"Babe, those mission I go on pay very well. I brought in $3 Million dollars on the last one. Just for me. My team got $500K each. I'm a mercenary and I don't come cheep."

"So you bought the cars?"

"Yes."

"Well damn. That's kind of boring."

"Would it make you feel better if I told you that Al runs a chop shop by night and I use him for modifications because he doesn't ask questions?"

"Yes. Much better. Makes you sound more badass." I thought about it, "So Meagan was just able to go out and buy a zillion dollar car because of your work?"

"Yes and no. She's very expensive yes, but Meagan comes from very old money, she's an only child of two only children. When her parents died she inherited two family fortunes. She's never had to work a day in her life but she's too smart and too energetic to sit around and be a bored rich kid so she had to do something she was good at. She's good at this."

"And Santos?"

"Same as me Babe. Plus he inherited everything Meagan had when she died. Though I don't think he ever used any of it."

Meagan met Ranger the year her parents died. Ella was her housekeeper and had raised her. She'd taken Meagan to meet Ranger while he was in Juvie, correctly sensing that they might be good for each other and they'd been inseparable since. She also met Hector and Lester's brother Julio, around the same time. She'd been unofficially adopted by Ranger's family but didn't meet Lester until she was doing black ops with Ranger and Tank, Julio had been trying to set them up for years, badgering them until they got curious about each other.

On a trip to Miami with Julio she slept in an absent Lester's bedroom and snooped through his things and stole something-she refuses to say what- and that something got them exchanging messages. First through Ranger because Lester and Ranger were stationed together and when Ranger got sick of playing carrier pigeon, Meaganstarted hiding messages in Lester's bedroom. She would find his replies, sometimes months after she had written the message, when she went to stay with his parents on leave. She claimed that she slept better in the room he grew up in than anywhere else. They were ready to fall in love with each other so when they did finally meet they fell hard. A few years later she went missing and was presumed dead only to come back alive. She was blackmailed into staying dead but under contract for three years. Six months ago fate brought her to Trenton and one thing lead to another and she was reunited with Lester and everyone was deliriously happy.

I kissed Ranger one more time and climbed back over the console to my own seat. "Hey thanks for sharing there man of mystery." I said. He leaned across the car and kissed me again before restarting the engine and pulling back out onto road. He slipped into his driving zone and I slipped into mine. In my case that translates into taking a sugar induced nap.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"This asshole is a fucking Nimitz Class Douche Canoe! Like what the fuck does he think he's doing?"" Meagan shouted and gesticulated angrily at the Audi straddling the lanes in front of her. Lester bit down hard on the inside of his cheek so he didn't laugh. Laughing was dangerous. Laughing could get him hurt. Meagan was looking like she was wishing she had rocket launchers installed in her cars and with Urus it looked like that could be a distinct possibility.

Meagan and Ranger were a lot alike. They did a lot of things alike. They did not share the driving zone and Meagan suffered from road rage when she was stuck in traffic. This was probably a result of being taught to drive in New York City by a friend of Hector's. Her Rage manifested itself in very creative swearing that often had her audience, like Lester was now, trying hard not to laugh for fear of her wrath being directed at them. Add to that the impulse control issues she had when she was tired and the drive was going to cause Lester to develop a hernia from forcing himself not to react.

"I'm FBI. Am I allowed to arrest people for being giant ass spatulas?" _Breathe Lester. Just take deep breaths._ The car in front had finally chosen a lane and Meagan was about to pass him when he cut her off and she slammed on the breaks. Meagan laid on the horn and Lester nearly jumped out of his seat. It had to have been custom because it sounded like it had come off of a fucking cruise ship.

The Ass Spatula flipped Meagan off, _Oh shit. The Ass Spatula just flipped…Deep breaths.. Deep breaths… _Meagan's reaction was to actively look for the rocket launcher button. The driver ahead of her took one look at that car and the look on Meagan's face and wisely decided to get in his own lane. "Would fucking like to HALO drop him into an active fucking volcano." she muttered as she passed. _And now I'm dead._ Lester made a strangled sound somewhere between a laugh and a choke and he fervently hoped that the rest of the drive would be uneventful and that traffic would let up soon. He wasn't sure he'd survive otherwise.

Twenty minutes later they pulled into the driveway of a large colonial style house in a gated community. Meagan got out of the car and composed herself. She was dressed in business attire that flattered her almost excessively. The pants were wide legged and high waisted and cinched at the waist with a white belt, making her trim waist look improbably small, the fitted sleeveless white blouse that was tucked into the pants, accentuated everything else yet looked completely professional. Lester, dressed in full black SWAT, sat in the car attempting to bring his own blood pressure back down after the harrowing ride. He hopped out of the SUV and slammed the door and walked around the car to where she was slipping her shoes back on.

"Want me to drive back?" He teased before brushing a quick kiss across her lips. She grinned at him and tossed him the keys. He walked in front of her to go ring the bell and she playfully swatted his ass.

He rang the bell and stepped back letting her lead. An attractive woman with bottle blonde hair who was probably in her mid fifties but had botoxed her way to 45, answered the door. She was wearing short white shorts that she'd left the top button open on to reveal a hint of the bikini she was wearing underneath the shorts and sheer blue beach top.

She completely overlooked Meagan and blatantly checked out Lester. Meagan resisted the urge to roll her eyes and let the woman stare at her husband for a moment or two. It might make her day and Meagan was all about spreading good cheer. Meagan cleared her throat, "Hello I'm Meagan and this is Lester, we are here representing Rangeman Securities." The woman snapped out of her trance and looked at Meagan.

"Hi yes, I'm Margaret Beals. Nice to meet you." she stuck her hand out and Meagan took it. "Mr. Manoso said he was sending out two of his best. I assume you are it?"

"Yes Ma'am. What can we do for you?"

Margaret Beals lead them out to the back yard where her husband Anthony had laid out blueprints of the house as well as maps and ariel photos of the property. They spent an hour taking a quick tour going over ideal camera placement and various security options. All questions were directed at Lester and he had deferred to Tink with every question. It was amusing to watch as Beals became more and more irritated. Mrs. Beals and their daughter Linda were completely charmed by the couple and Anthony was having a hard time keeping a grip.

"Mr. Manoso said that you provide bodyguards?" Anthony asked Lester. Lester, who had spoken only to Meagan for the whole meeting, maintained his vow of silence.

"To some extent yes Mr. Beals…" she answered.

"It's Captain, _Miss_."

"Excuse me Captain." Meagan said with a respectful nod of her head, "If there is an active threat than we will do temporary bodyguard work. If you are just looking for full time muscle then we are happy to help you find someone and then we will train them for a fee; but ultimately they are under your employ and once they are finished training with us they are no longer affiliated with Rangeman." Meagan said.

"How many female bodyguards do you have on staff?" Margaret asked.

'Currently just myself." Meagan said, "We have another woman who works as a Fugitive Apprehension Agent and has acted in the capacity as a bodyguard before but she prefers to stick to investigations. Let me assure you though ma'am that all of the men that work for us are trained to be discrete when necessary and..."

"Stand please Meagan." Anthony said. Meagan raised an eyebrow and stood. Beals stood as well and positioned her so that he could get a better look at her. Not many people gave her orders anymore and her curiosity was seriously piqued by his actions. "You are what? Five feet, and 100 lbs? I'm sorry. We'll go with someone else for our bodyguards. We do like your security though."

Meagan shrugged as if it was no never mind to her. She caught the almost imperceptible nod from Lester. She took a step to her right just as someone came at her from behind. She used his momentum to help him over her shoulder. She had him on the ground on his stomach in a heart beat. Her hair was still perfectly in place.

"If you had wanted a demonstration of my skills all you needed to do was ask for them. I'd have worn different shoes." She said mildly. "Unfortunately _Captain_, my resume has been redacted to the point of being useless. Most of our staff are ex-Special Forces. I'm like that but ummm would you say 'more' Les?"

"I'd go with that." Lester said easily. "You and Ranger are Special Forces but more. I like it." He patted a stunned Beals on the shoulder, "And if you want to get picky about salutations, she's either Colonel or Doctor. Not '_Miss'_"

Meagan helped her assailant to his feet and addressed him, "Next time make sure my partner isn't looking. You might have been able to at least touch me."

SPOV

"I said we had a female body guard on the team. I didn't say it was Stephanie. If you want a demonstration, you ask." Ranger ground out. I thought I had handled myself well. I had been working with Meagan on self defence so when my assailant grabbed me, I was able to twist out of his grasp and knee him in the balls just before Ranger had almost broken his arm.

Mr and Mrs Dillon were looking on horrified.

Dillon bore a striking resemblance to my brother-in-law Kloughn, small and kind of doughy. His personality was similar as well, "S-s-s sorry Mr. Manoso." He stuttered, "M-m-m-my brother-in-law said we'd get a better idea of her skills if she wasn't prepared."

"I understand that Dillon. You must not have heard me tell you that Stephanie was not a bodyguard? That she was an investigator? That we use another woman as muscle?" Ranger's composure was back. "If you had there is no way you would have been dumb enough to have someone lay a hand on her. We will consider the contract and if we decide to provide you with security I will send you a quote." We let ourselves out of the house and went for the car. I had a feeling this quote would be well above our regular rates.

I waited until we were in the car before I started talking. I could see the tension still in his shoulders and around his mouth.

"Ranger, I'm fine. I don't think he would have hurt me." I said and got no response...Not that I was really expecting any. He was pretty pissed. "There was a time you would have been amused by my takedown method. I won't have you treating me like I'm helpless Ranger. I'm not. You have guys on me all of the time and I get that. I don't have to like it but I get it. I carry a panic button. Two actually. And..."

"Babe," he interrupted before I could get myself really worked up, "I'm actually impressed. Normally when attacked you are an animal. Meagan has rubbed off on you. You were in control back there. Keep working with her." He took his hand off the wheel and took mine. He brought it to his lips and gave it a quick kiss.

"So why are you so pissed then?"

"Babe he waited until my back was turned and then he had his goon grab you. I reacted. You have never had a problem with it before. Why now?"

"I don't have a problem with it I-"

"Babe." he said and I sighed.

"I had it under control. I don't like feeling like I always need rescuing. If it had been Les and Meagan instead of you and me he would have let her handle it."

"The only reason that's the case is because Meagan could kill the guy before Lester could react. If she weren't so fucking fast he would have done exactly what I did." He said, "Face it, I love you. Someone lays a hand on you I'm going to fuck them up. That's never going to change."

We were interrupted by the ring of Ranger's phone through the Hands free.

"Yo."

"She's been swearing since we got on the interstate, there is no traffic and I'm driving." Lester's voice came through the speakers, "the bastard tried to have someone attack her. She's pissed. I'm pissed. I'm just sorry she kicked his ass before I had a chance to do anything."

"How far out are you?"

"About five minutes." He said and then made a sound that sounded like a suppressed snicker, "She is running out of insults. She just called him a fucking Stupid Head."

"Tell her to switch to German. We'll be back in ten. Meet us for lunch on 7." Ranger hung up.

"I thought she had like legendary control like you do?" I asked.

"She does. I just do my swearing in my head."

"Ah. What language are you on? Spanish?"

"I'm well past the Romance languages. I'm on fucking Cantonese now."

The car was quiet for the rest of the drive back to Rangeman and we went straight up to seven. Lester rolled in a few minutes behind us.

"Where's Tink?" I asked as we sat down to lunch.

"Changing out of her suit. I think she's going to go blow off some steam after lunch." Lester said, "Anyone you want to kick the shit out of? Might go faster if her punching bag fights back."

"I'll go. I have some issues I need to work out too." Ranger said. Shit he was really pissed about this morning. There has to be more to this. I would get it out of him later. I had bigger fish to fry. I'd been simmering all morning well before Dillon fucked up.

"Hey can I ask you guys something?" I got identical eyebrow raises in response. I really needed to learn to do that, "I was just wondering what you thought about maybe finding something here for Connie and Lula?"

"Connie yes. Lula I'd have to think about." Ranger stretched and put an arm around the back of my chair, "Why the sudden interest?"

"I feel bad for Connie and responsible for Lula. I was pissed off this morning when they were talking about blackmailing Vinnie for paid vacation. That business wouldn't exist if it weren't for Connie and Lula took a pay cut because I got married and am doing skip tracing for Rangeman. She got a cut of whatever I brought in. Now she doesn't and I feel bad. I was just wondering if maybe we had something here that she could do."

Ranger looked thoughtful. He liked to say yes to me because I didn't often ask for things. He'd take the request seriously.

"I'll think about it and get back to you Babe."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"When is Tank back from Miami?" Meagan asked. She and Ranger had worked off their aggression and were now running on the treadmills.

"Later today. I'd like to have more information by then." Ranger said, "He thinks he's done everything he can in Florida. Where's Morelli's head at? He ready for this?"

"He's ready. We hauled in Saunders last night. Got the final pieces in place, he'll go undercover tomorrow. He's happy that we're the ones calling the shots."

"That's a surprise."

"Not really. He knows us. He knows we know what he's capable of. Won't have to worry about us second guessing his actions." They finished their Cool downs and went back to the mats to stretch.

"Not that I didn't love the quality time with him this morning, thanks for that by the way, but you should have sent Lester with Stephanie. Seemed kind of ridiculous to put both of your profilers on one team."

"I wanted Stephanie to get a feel for them. Her Spidey Sense is good. I wanted to see if it went off."

"Anything?"

"Mostly she looked like she was sleeping with her eyes open." He replied with an almost smirk and Meagan grinned, "What's happening on your end?"

"I've pulled every string I have and then some to push her clearance through. She'll have it by close of business." Meagan replied with a smile, "We can read the team in Saturday morning."

"Besides destroying one of his men…"

"I winded him and maybe wounded his pride at most."

"How did it go?"

"Well we got the account, we knew we would though. But I pressed all the buttons I could think of, Lester fucking leaned on one. We have his attention. He plays a long game Carlos this is going to take a while."

When they left the gym everyone was staring at them. They were used to seeing them spar. They were used to the fact that Ranger actually engaged in real conversations with his oldest friend, it was common place now. It was how they had done it that had everyone gawking. An old habit for being able to have high clearance level conversations without having to find a room or disable security to do so. Something they had started very early on when they discovered they had a shared facility for languages. When they wanted to speak privately they switched to a new language. If they weren't sure who spoke what in the room they spoke several. Sometimes switching languages with every word as they had done now. There was a trick to it, one they wouldn't share with anyone, the men who had worked with them in the past had dubbed it Ranger Bell. They'd slipped into it without thinking and had just impressed the hell out of the men. Again.

"Fuck. How smart are they exactly?" Hal asked from his place at the weights.

"Off the fucking charts." Ram replied.

RSRSRSRSRRSRSRSRSRS _(AN: This is where the chapter got cut off.)_

Ladies night. Connie, Lula, Mary Lou, Meagan and I were hitting Surprise. Meagan and I had worked there on a case not long ago and had loved the vibe. Tonight they were doing a Karaoke night. Meagan and Lula were up on stage belting out Raining Men. Meagan and Lula couldn't be more different. About the only thing they had in common was blonde hair. For this week anyway. That could change when Lula got bored. Meagan was petite and if she had an ounce of fat on her, her body her build would have run towards Jessica Rabbit. Because she has no body fat she looked like her nickname. Tonight she was rocking a pair of leather pants and a white lace halter top. Her hair was down and she had spectacular black eye makeup on. She was drawing looks from every man at the bar.

Lula was drawing looks as well but I suspected for different reasons. Her blonde hair was piled up on top of her head and she was in red pleather catsuit that was about two sizes too small and didn't zip up all the way in the front. She had about a mile of boob exposed. Meagan genuinely liked Lula, liked what she had done with herself, liked her strength. Lula was still on the fence about Meagan. She tended towards jealousy and Tink got a lot of attention but at the same time Tink was so affable most of the time that it was hard not to like her. Part of tonight was to see if they could bond a bit more. They had bickered the entire ride over trying to figure out what song to sing first and they were rocking their choice, Meagan had talent and Lula had enthusiasm.

Connie and Mary Lou had gone to the bar for drinks so it was just me at the table to cheer them on.

"Hey Cupcake." Joe said in my ear. He scared the crap out of me so I hit him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ranger sold you out. He told me where you were." He handed me a beer. His whiskey brown eyes were warm. "I like the outfit. You look hot tonight Cupcake." I was wearing a faded cut off jean skirt and tight baby pink tank top and a pair of 3 inch blue pumps. My hair was behaving, thanks to a trip to Mr. Alexander's this afternoon, and was softly falling around my shoulders. My make up was natural. I was the girl next door. Ranger had barely let me out the door. That Joe liked it too was a little uncomfortable. I'd probably always be attracted to Joe, we would always have chemistry otherwise our relationship wouldn't have been so explosive. I didn't want to encourage him in anyways and I was afraid I was going to need back up.

"Yeah, Ranger liked the outfit too. Especially the shoes." That was like a bucket of ice water on his libido. His expression cooled and he took a step back. He'd been hitting on me out of habit and I could tell he was a little embarrassed.

"Listen, I'm going out of town for a couple of weeks. Would your parents take Bob?" He asked.

"Probably. What about Mooch or y_our_ mother?"

"Don't want them to know I'm going out of town. I figure if I send the dog to your parents place you could just say that you missed him or that your mom asked to borrow him for a couple of weeks because of some break-ins in the area."

"I suppose. I can call in the morning. Are you going undercover?"

He nodded and I kissed his cheek, "Be safe Joe."

"He'll be fine. I've got his back! Right Morelli?" Meagan said as she bounced up to the table.

"God help me but yes." He said and draped an arm around her shoulders.

"Hey what are you doing here Officer Hottie? This here is ladies night. No men allowed!" Lula yelled over the noise. Mary Lou and Connie were back with our drinks now too.

"Actually that would be Special Agent Hottie. He's not a cop anymore remember? He's a Fed!" Connie corrected.

"That deserves a toast!" Mare shouted. We might have already been a bit drunk.

"SPECIAL AGENT HOTTIE!" We shouted. Joe laughed and shook his head.

"You are all nuts. I'm outta here before things get weirder." He said.

"No you can't go!" Meagan said as she hastily put her drink down, "I have someone for you to meet. Come!" She dragged him excitedly towards the bar.

"Okay Steph! Come on our turn. What are we singing?" Mary Lou dragged me towards the stage.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Nice fake drunk you got going on there Princess." Joe said.

"Why thanks. I do what I can." She had been drinking but not as heavily as the others and he had seen her drinking water between shots, "Hector is back at Haywood monitoring everything you say and I've got an earwig in. I can hear you and act as your wingman if you need it. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Well here she comes. You are her type, she's sweet, even if her parents are nut cases. I met them today. Her mother looked like she was going to seduce Lester right in front of me."

"Easy there Princess." He teased. Meagan didn't do jealous but she despised women like Margaret Beals. Lester told Mrs. Beals that he was married (several times) but that hadn't stopped her from putting her hand on his thigh under the table or trying to convince him that one time wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Yeah yeah. Let's get this show on the road."

Linda Beals was a 27 year old nurse and the apple of her father's eye. She was 5'7" of long legs and athletic body. She had medium brown hair that had been ruthlessly put through a straightening iron. She was wearing a black bandage dress that showed off her few curves to perfection and she was new in town.

"Meagan right? Linda. You were helping figure out the security for the house right?" She said when she saw Meagan at the bar.

"Hi! Yeah that was me! Hope your bodyguard is okay? I didn't break anything did I?"

"Just his pride. He yelled at dad for a good hour for not telling him about your credentials. He assumed your partner was there to act as muscle and wanted to see how he reacted."

Joe watched this exchange with amusement, "Having fun today were you Princess?" He teased.

"Oh sorry Joe forgot you were here." She winked at him, "Joe, this is Linda Beals. I'm arranging for security for her parents property. Linda is a nurse. Linda this is Joe, he's very single and lonely." Linda looked Joe up and down. He was movie star handsome and suffered from an excessive amount of testosterone. Essentially he was sex clad in faded blue denim and a t-shirt. Linda was instantly smitten.

"Hey Meagan! Connie wants to sing Spice Girls! We need a Scary Spice! You're it girlfriend!" Lula came barreling up to them, "White Girl is gonna be Posh Spice on account of she can't really sing, I'm obviously Sporty Spice."

"Naturally." Joe said laughing.

"Connie is Ginger, Lou is gonna be Baby Spice on account of she's got babies. So that leaves you to be Scary, cuz,well you are! Now get over there and start shaking your leather covered ass off! We need our Talent out front girl!"

"My public awaits me." Meagan did a little slightly drunken bow.

"Damn skippy." They staggered off together leaving a laughing Joe and Linda to get better acquainted.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Hey! Back again! Sorry it took a while. I have momentous news! I have a beta, DimariS. Thank you Di!**

**Hope you enjoy this ****instalment! As always I don't own anything. It all belongs to JE.**

**RSRSRSRSRSRS **

"How are you not hung over this morning?" I asked. I had my mirrored sunglasses on in the conference room.

"Just lucky, I guess." Meagan was impossibly chipper after last night.

"I'm such a light weight." Tequila, drinking games, lots of margaritas...everything hurt.

"Evidently." she was laughing at me and I was reconsidering my feelings towards her.

"Ranger had to carry you from the car."

"What about the others?"

"Connie and Lula took a cab back to the Bonds office for the night. They couldn't remember where they lived. Lenny rescued Mare."

"I don't remember anything after Spice Up Your Life." I groaned and put my forehead on the blissfully cool conference room table. The boys had crashed ladies night. It had been epic. Meagan and Lester did body shots off of each other; she said something about him owing her from that time in that strip club. Yeah. It was that kind of night.

The door opened and I smelled fries. I lifted my head up from the table. Ranger fed me one and I started to feel better. I took a sip of the Coke he held out for me. "I love you. Have I told you that yet?" He just chuckled as I was finally able to take over feeding myself. I offered some fries to Meagan. She declined. "How are you in such good shape? My hair hurts."

"Multiple orgasms." Lester said. I nearly spat out my Coke and ended up snorting it up my nose instead.

"You're an ass." Meagan said and slapped him on the back of the head. Upon closer inspection, I realized she was practically glowing. _Holy shit, he's serious!_ I looked at Ranger. I was pissed. How come I was death warmed over and she got to be perky?

"Babe, it's a well known cure for a headache that I'd be more than happy to help you with, but you have to be conscious and interactive for it to work."

I glared at the room of people laughing at me. "Ella will save me. Ella will give me sympathy."

"I bought you McDonalds, didn't I?"

"You are making me come to a meeting on Saturday instead of letting me die in peace." He scooped me out of my seat and put me on his lap. He was still laughing at me but at least now I was cuddling him. A few minutes later Bobby, Tank and Hal came into the room followed a few minutes later by Hector, Vince, Cal and Manny. Basically, the gang was all here and most of them were wearing sunglasses.

Ranger called the meeting to order, "It's your show, Hermana."

"Yesterday we started doing a favor for the FBI. We're helping them with the investigation of Anthony Beals. We think it's possible that he is involved in a series of serial killings and the FBI wants our help." Meagan put a picture up on the screen behind her.

"What makes him special?" Cal asked.

"A few things, first and foremost is that he was already a client in Miami. He's moved his family here and wants us to set up the security for his property," Tink said. "We also think we have a bit of a renaissance man on our hands. It looks like in addition to his murderous tendencies might also be into human trafficking."

"Nice guy." Bobby said and he started to read the file.

"So what's the plan? We set up his surveillance and plant a few bugs for the feebs while we're at it?" Vince asked.

"He's paranoid so he does frequent bug sweeps. No, it turns out we have another in. His daughter, Linda, is being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. At least she thinks she is. We picked him up the other day on some minor charges and he's currently sitting in a cell. The Beals family doesn't know the identity of Linda's stalker, nor do they know we have picked him up. He's fairly early in his obsession and hasn't done anything more than scare her a little.

"Two weeks ago she spoke to the police. They knew we were looking at her father and they brought us in thinking that it was connected. It isn't but it gave the FBI what we needed to take over her stalking case. Last night, before the Tequila happened, I hooked her up with Morelli." She looked up and cocked an eyebrow, "Hector?"

Hector started speaking with Lester translating for him, "After you guys invaded ladies night - And by the way, I'm hurt that I wasn't invited- Morelli got her out of the bar and he told her who he was. His story is that the FBI has been looking for a serial rapist with a long dormancy period and they are pretty sure her stalker is the rapist. He suggested that they pose as a couple to try and draw out the stalker which has the added bonus of keeping FBI protection on her at all times without it being obvious."

"Where do we fit in?" Cal asked.

"Lester, Stephanie and I are going to take up a new hobby," Tink said, "We are going to stalk Linda. We are going to up the pressure so that her father hires Rangeman as body guards. Beyond that I'm still waiting on the victimology from the BAU. They have their hands full right now and are happy to send us their case notes. Until I know fully what we are looking at as far as the serial killings go we are going to have to sit back and rely on Joe to provide us with intel for this investigation."

She started going into the technical aspects of the surveillance. I would not be involved in that so I mentally checked out. I was still sitting on Ranger's lap and I leaned forward and grabbed my Coke. When I started to fidget, Ranger clamped down on my hip and held me still. I thought he was irritated with my inability to sit still so I went to move to my own seat but he gripped me harder and I shifted a bit. OH! Ranger was bothered alright. Ranger wanted to get friendly and it was obvious. I was acting as a shield for him. Since this little meeting was boring, they were now debating having Meagan plant listening devices on existing body guards, I decided to have a little fun with Batman.

First I shifted positions again and he stopped breathing. Then I stretched forward to grab a pen to take notes allowing my shirt to ride up and my low rise pants to slide down a bit. I wondered if Ranger would realize that I was trying to keep him in a state. _Oh, goodie, a text message! Maybe there's a skip I needed to go get...like right now._ I shifted again to grab my phone.

I saw the sender and furrowed my eyebrows. _Why the hell is he texting me?_

Ranger: PAYBACK IS A BITCH.

Huh I guess he knew what I was doing.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Connie and Lula looked up as three unbelievable black vehicles pulled into the lot. First the elegantly understated Turbo, then the flamboyant, ridiculous, bad ass, nearly black Veneno followed by the massive black Range Rover. They watched as Ranger angled out of his car. The scissor door of Tink's Lambo opened and she climbed out followed by Tank from his Range Rover.

"He in?" Ranger asked after they had all descended upon the office.

"Nope. Harry is pissed so Vinnie decided to take a mental health day," Connie said, "To what do we owe the pleasure? The little missus picked up your files already."

"Yeah and, uh, why are there three of you?" Lula asked. Ranger leaned up against the door, Meagan perched on Connie's desk, her legs dangling like a little kid's and Tank sat beside Lula on the sofa. He tossed an arm around the back of the sofa and Lula glared at him. She still hadn't forgiven him for the cats.

"We're getting out of the local fugitive apprehension business. The feds keep calling us in and the money is better; but for the moment we don't have the manpower. So until we go on a massive hiring spree, we're canceling our contract." Meagan said and pilfered a doughnut. Connie paled. This was bad. Without them this business would go belly up and she wouldn't have a job.

"I wanted you to have this before I left." Ranger tossed a black file folder onto Connie's desk and went back to leaning against the door frame.

Connie opened the file. "This is a job offer," she stated. She looked shocked. "I can't just leave Vinnie in the lurch."

"It's not as bad as you think. Les Sebring just bought Vinnie out." Ranger said, "Vinnie is about to become very wealthy. He's shutting down this office."

"Then I accept. When do I start?" she asked.

"Week from Monday. We're drowning in paperwork so your job will be to work with Ella to streamline us. She runs our private lives; you'll run our work lives. If you need help, you tell us what you need and we'll make it happen."

"What about me?" Lula's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Tink?" Tank prompted Meagan.

"Lula, we would't forget about you. Not in a million years." Meagan started, "You have been doing Behavioural Studies at night school?"

"Yes."

"You are going to keep them up. During the day, if you accept, you will be going through the Rangeman training program in firearms, fitness, self-defense etc. Once you are finished school - and you will have help from me there - and your training, you will be assigned a partner and become a member of our team."

"Damn skippy! Sign me up! Where do I sign?"

"Lula, you know what this means right? The men on my team have to pass certain physical fitness requirements, you will have to wear the uniform when you are at work and you will have to follow orders." Ranger explained.

"Can I do what I want with my hair?" Lula asked.

"Yes."

"Sign me up for Badass School." Meagan beamed at the quasi compliment.

Tank handed Lula a folder she hadn't seen in his hand. "Until the end of the semester you will do your training in New York. We have a sensitive operation getting underway and we can't have new recruits around the building while things are being set up." Tank said. "If the commute starts to interfere with your schoolwork, your training will be suspended, with pay, until you graduate."

"And after I graduate?" She asked.

"Miami." Meagan said, "and Boston probably. Julio Santos sort of floats between those three offices making sure everything is running smoothly. You go where he goes. Each office has its own strengths and Julio will make sure you are trained by the best."

"So that means you're going to teach me breaking and entering?" She asked Ranger and he shook his head.

"Who do you think taught us? Julio only seems like a choir boy." Meagan grinned, "In addition to your training, Bobby requires all staff to do stints in the infirmary so that in the event something happens to him there are other people around that can take over. He's also asked to be the one to do your firearms training. He's a great teacher so listen to him." Meagan suddenly looked distracted and pulled her phone from the back pocket of her black jeans and looked at the read out. "All right, I'm out. I get to go stare at crime scene photos and read incomprehensible case notes." She hopped off of the desk and turned, "Con, you and me in the firing range on Monday. I wanna see what you got?" And then she turned and trotted out of the office and back to the car.

"We have a meeting." Tank said and hauled himself to his feet, "Good luck, ladies." With that he to walked to his car, though with noticeably much less exuberance than Tink had. Ranger was at the door when Lula worked up the courage to ask to speak to him alone.

"Yo, Batman, can I talk to you before you go?"

He inclined his head towards the door and led her around to the alley where he and Steph had spent so much time. He leaned up against the wall of the bookshop with his arms folded while she chewed her lip.

"Why you offerin' me a job?" She asked, "Is it because Steph asked you because…."

"She asked and I told her I'd think about it. I brought the issue before my partners and we discussed it at length. They all think you have potential and Rangeman believes in giving second chances to those who have earned it. You have earned it."

"You said 'They' you didn't say 'We'. We got a problem, Batman?"

Ranger cocked his eyebrow slightly, "Starting next Monday I'm your boss. Get out of the habit of calling me Batman, you won't be allowed to take liberties in front of the other men. It isn't fair and I can't take you to the mats. Meagan will and believe me when I tell you that you don't want her to do it for disciplinary reasons." He said evenly and Lula nodded, "As for your question, I don't have a problem with you, Lula. You've proven to be a good friend of Stephanie's and you've proven that you would like to improve yourself. I do have some concerns and I have voiced them."

"Which are?"

"Your cop allergy, your inability to follow orders and your inability to keep your mouth shut."

Lula looked at him soberly, for once not showing all of her bluster, her Rhino mode suppressed at the moment as she considered his frank appraisal.

"You have to get over all of that. You leave someone at the station even once or you leave someone stranded at a scene because you either got scared or you got bored, you're fired. You fail to follow an order without a very good reason, you're fired. Talking about our cases outside of the building will not only get you fired but could land you in jail. If you don't think you can handle those conditions, I'm sure there is something administrative you can do around the building that isn't sensitive, but you'll still have to do the training and finish school." he continued.

"Can I think about where I wanna be?" she asked. Ranger's lips tipped up in an almost smile and he nodded.

"You have until the end of your training. I'll tell Julio you are considering both options."

"Anything I should know about Santos' brother?"

Ranger let out a full smile, "Probably." He pushed off of the wall and left the alley without elaborating.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

7 months later

Meagan and Bobby were on the dance floor and they were putting on quite the show. Lester was on the other side of the room where he had a vantage point of both Meagan and I. The girl could dance. Like seriously dance. She wasn't dancing with Lester because he was looking at her like he would drag her to the Men's room if he got within six inches of her. "He's in the club; he's on the way to the bar." Meagan said into Bobby's wire. Apparently, in the past when they needed a couple undercover, it had always been Meagan and Bobby. They had enough chemistry to make it believable but not so much that they lost focus "How do you wanna play it Steph?"

We'd given up skip tracing on the local level but were still very active on the Federal level. We had word that one of the guys we were looking for was going to be at this club with a friend of his. They had a reputation for picking up a girl (or a pair of girls that were open minded) and then taking them back to their hotel to share. Tonight Meagan and I were to be those girls - at least as far as the door. We'd gone shopping for our distraction outfits together and now Ranger refused to look at me. At first I thought he didn't like the outfit, but the problem was, he liked the outfit too much. He was waiting outside of the club for that exact reason. He was having trouble focusing on anything but my ass. I'd driven over with Meagan and if the strangled sounds coming from our comms, and Bobby's comment about Meagan's dress deserving a Nobel Prize and the tortured sound of Cal involuntarily saying "boots" were anything to go by, the rest of the boys approved of the spoils of our shopping trip.

"I've got an idea." I murmured into my drink, "I'll get his attention. When I have it, come to the bar and act like a ditzy blonde who's had too much to drink."

The skip approached the bar. We made eye contact and I gave him an almost smile before I turned my attention back to Meagan and gave her a blatant slow body scan as she danced with Bobby. She looked at me over her shoulder and returned the favour. I kept my face slightly amused and then looked back at our skip who was now very interested. He approached me, "Can I buy you a drink?" he asked and I gave him a slight nod of my head. He signalled his friend over.

"_Heads up._" I heard Manny say, "_Wifey has them both at the bar._"

_"I'm up."_ Meagan said and I watched her as she ran her hand over Bobby's abs.

_"You're killing me, Gorgeous,"_ he groaned.

_"Sorry, B. Gotta make it look real."_ she teased, gently shoved him away and made her way to me at the bar. She got to within a few feet of me and stumbled and I reached out and caught her before she fell.

"Babe." I admonished, smiling slightly.

She giggled, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"They haven't told me their names yet but they want to buy me a drink."

"Oh, I could use another drink!" She clapped and stumbled a little bit, this time into the skip.

"Babe, I think I need to get you home and into bed." I said, amused.

"Just one more drink, please?" she begged and I reached out and tugged one of her curls before tucking it behind her ear and nodded slightly. There was choked laughter coming through the comms and Meagan's eyes were alight with amusement. So maybe I was doing Ranger a little. He'd pay me back for it later but it was worth it for the pure entertainment value.

I ordered Meagan a Tequila shot which she made a show of tossing back before biting and sucking on the lemon wedge I was holding. Our skip and his friend were riveted. "Time to go Babe." I said and she pouted prettily.

"But we just met these nice men. Shouldn't we at least dance with them?" I shook my head no.

"Let us walk you to your car at least," our skip's friend offered, "Just so we can make sure you get there safely. She's looking a bit unsteady in those heels. You might need someone to carry her."

"You going to follow us home, too? You know in case I need help getting her inside?" I smirked.

"Our hotel room is closer…" The skip offered. I nodded my head and we made for the doors.

Meagan and I had a surprise for Ranger and Tank and I was just hoping I didn't screw it up. As soon as we made it to the parking lot, about ten feet from where Tank and Ranger were going to take over for us, Meagan gave me a signal. She stumbled and I used the distraction to grab my cuffs out of my back pocket, stuck my foot out and tripped the skip as he reached to steady Meagan. He went down face first and I put my knee in the small of his back then slapped the cuffs on one of his wrists. He tried to struggle but I had him pinned and his arm was twisted painfully behind his back. I grabbed his other arm and slapped the cuff on his the other wrist.

Meagan was standing with a stiletto on the back of his similarly trussed up friend, her was gun drawn so he wouldn't struggle. I hadn't seen her in action but she didn't look the least bit ruffled. I looked the outfit over and briefly wondered where the hell she'd kept the cuffs and gun.

"We don't have papers for the friend." I pointed out.

"He's got an eight ball in his pocket. It's cool. I'm booking him on possession." She replied. Ranger and Tank came and took them off of our hands, and loaded them both into the Range Rover where they shackled them to the floor.

"Why were we here exactly?" Tank asked.

"To do the heavy lifting of course." Meagan chirped and patted him on the cheek, "Well done, Steph!"

Ranger pulled me into a deep kiss, "Proud of you Babe." He said when he released me, "though we do need to discuss the insubordination in front of the men." The heat from his look could have melted asphalt.

A yelp of surprise drew my attention away from Ranger and we looked as Lester pressed Meagan up against the Range Rover and proceeded to kiss the hell out of her. He really liked the dress. Ranger raised an eyebrow and reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter. He flipped it at Meagan who snagged it neatly out of the air and broke the kiss to check the results of the toss.

"Fuck." Meagan whispered and Ranger laughed. They had standing sides for heads or tails? That's just weird and you just gotta ask yourself what precipitated that or do I even want to know? With them you couldn't always be sure.

RSRSRSRRSRSRS

Morelli fobbed his way up to five and stepped out of the elevators and into the control room. He didn't recognize the face staring at the monitors. "You must be new." He said. Like all of the men of Rangeman the guy was huge and built like a linebacker. He had even features with blonde hair, blue eyes and a slight dimple in his chin. He might have almost looked normal if his eyes weren't so cool and he didn't have a deep scar on his right cheek. Despite that he was still somewhat affable and he held out his hand to shake Joe's.

"Yeah man I'm Jimmy. Just finished training in Boston and started my first shift here in Trenton fifteen minutes ago."

"Hi, Joe Morelli. I'm just checking in with Ranger."

"He's out. The whole core team is out. They had a scofflaw to pick up for the Feds." He pressed some keys on his keyboard and it brought up the trackers. "Tank's truck is at TPD for some reason and Ranger, Santos and Brown are on their way back - about two minutes out." He pulled up the garage on the monitors. Hal and Cal came into the comm room. They did a complicated handshake with Morelli. When he had been with Steph, most of the Merry Men had strongly disliked Joe. As Tink's partner, however, they got to know him. Ranger had always maintained he was a good man and they saw it now. He and Steph were good friends and Meagan loved him like a big brother. That's all they needed to know now that the boss was happy.

Joe watched the Turbo, the Veneno and an Explorer pull into the lot. "How does Brown like driving that when he gets to see Santos and Ranger in their rides?" Joe's chuckling stopped abruptly when he saw the legs getting out of each of the sports cars. "Damn." He breathed.

Stephanie was wearing a black leather skirt that was only a couple of inches below her ass, a slinky black halter top that barely covered her breasts and left her back almost completely exposed and in a pair of fantasy inspiring, unfeasibly high- heeled boots. Meagan was in a dress with a skirt that was longer than Steph's but still showed off a phenomenal amount of leg. It was pale metallic gold, the top was little more than a bra that was connected to the skirt by zillions of fine gold chains. Her heels matched her dress. Several fine gold chains hung from a strap at her ankle down the back and sides of her sandals. The chains at the front of her shoe were attached to the toe strap, the rest dangled from the ankle strap to the ground and were just barely short enough to avoid tripping over them.

"Jesus, looks like the bosses brought home some entertainment." Jimmy said with a whistle of appreciation. Hal and Cal exchanged amused expressions.

"Don't let them hear you say that." Joe warned with a smile.

"The boss isn't real fond of sharing." Hal explained.

"Neither is Santos." Cal added.

On the monitors, Stephanie was laughing at something Meagan was saying, Ranger was looking at Steph like she wasn't just dessert but a full seven course meal he was going to take his time enjoying. Meagan had just given Santos a playful shove and he was looking pained. Ranger grabbed Stephanie and pulled her into a deep kiss and led her to the elevator where the cameras promptly went off. "Uhhh, looks like you will be waiting to talk to the bossman. He's going straight up to seven,." Jimmy said.

Lester knelt in front of Meagan, she put her shoe on his chest and he seemed to become fascinated with her footware. Brown got out of his car and laughed at Lester. He kissed Meagan's cheek and got into the elevator next while she laughingly put her foot on Lester's shoulder and kicked him away. He stood and kissed her and they were next to catch the elevator. Much to Jimmy's surprise, this time the elevator stopped at 5. Meagan and Santos were still kissing when the doors opened but as soon as the door chimed to indicate they were at their floor, she gave him a playful shove and backed out of the elevator.

She noticed Morelli and her face lit into a pleased smile. "Joey! My hero! I need you!" She sounded slightly tipsy but Joe knew better, "I have a problem that Les just couldn't handle. Since you have helped me out in this department before, I thought you could take care of me?" Considering what Jimmy thought she was, it was a pretty funny opening line and Morelli tried to keep a straight face. She winked at Lester as the elevator doors closed and he shook his head, his expression promising a retribution she was going to enjoy.

"What can I do for you, Princess?"

"If you can't help me, I'll have to get Ranger to do it. I really don't want to interrupt him. Bobby has already tried but he couldn't fulfill my needs either." She pouted, obviously enjoying herself.

"Uh huh. What's your problem?"

She sat down on the Comm desk and stuck out her leg. Morelli looked down at her shoe. One of the chains had managed to tangle itself around the buckle at her ankle.

"There is a stone in my shoe and I can't get the damned shoe off." she whined.

Joe knelt down on the floor in front of her and began working on the chain. "Jesus, Princess, Santos is going to kill me, I'm getting turned on here. I just saw where your gun is."

She laughed. "Report!"

"Nothing to report, Tink. It's been quiet." Hal said. She looked at Jimmy who was staring at her in complete shock.

"You will have to forgive Jimmy. He's new. He thought you and Bombshell were party favours." Cal said.

"Oh man, are you ever lucky it's me in charge until Tank gets back." she teased.

Joe finished untangling her shoe and freed her foot and a rather sizeable pebble fell out of the high-heel.

"Oh, thank God." The relief was real, that rock had to have hurt, "Les just kept making it worse and my foot was killing me."

"He was distracted." He unbuckled her other shoe for her as he was down there already, "If I thought I had a shot with you, I wouldn't have been able to save you either." She reached into the desk drawer in front of Jimmy and pulled out a fob and tossed it to Joe.

"Come on. I'm beat, Ranger is offline for the rest of the night and Tank will be back any minute. I'm putting you up on 4 and then I am going to bed. Hopefully, if things stay quiet I'll actually get some sleep." she said.

"Thanks, Princess." He didn't bother to ask how she knew that the safe house he was living in was no longer safe. He was just grateful that he'd get a good night's sleep. Seven months of undercover work was about to go down the drain because of a chance meeting in a bar. He picked up a stack of files he'd put on the Comm desk when he'd dealt with Meagan's shoe crisis.

They took the stairs to four and she pointed to the door to his apartment. Joe fobbed it opened and they went inside. As soon as the door closed behind them Meagan slapped him in the back of the head, "You could see my gun? What the hell?"

"Jimmy just needed to know who you really are. Nice outfit by the way." She grinned. He was forgiven.

The apartment was utilitarian. It had a small kitchen, double bed, small love seat and a large television. Joe sat on the foot of the bed and took off his shoes.

"Distraction job. It was fun. Steph is unbelievable. She snagged both of their attentions in like five seconds flat. I just had to go over there and be her arm candy."

"I find it hard to believe that Santos didn't want to drag you upstairs, too. Christ you and Steph as lovers is like every man's wet dream."

"I lost the coin toss. I get to be on call tonight." She replied. "What happened Joe? Why am I offering you refuge tonight? How compromised is the safe house?"

"Oh, I'd say burn it down," he said as he ran his hand through his hair, "it's about as compromised as it can get. I found no less than six bugs in it yesterday, Silvio's alerts went off on every computer in there, I haven't had a good night's sleep in a week afraid I might say something in my sleep."

"Oh man."

"Yeah exactly. I've emptied the safe; I'm positive that they didn't get anything from it."

"Unless they can fake an iris scan it's not likely." She said dryly, "I assume all of your notes were in there?" He nodded. "Give them to me. I'll go over them tonight." she held out her arm and made a gimme motion with her hand.

"What do you need me to do?" He handed her the files and a couple of notepads.

"Get some sleep. You look like shit." she said not unkindly, "There isn't much more we can do tonight."

"Thanks, Princess. It's possible we might be able to save this. I don't see how, but you are the expert so I leave it in your capable hands," Joe said on a yawn. He pulled off his belt and his shirt and tossed the shirt towards the laundry basket in the corner. Meagan turned and started to leave before he stripped anymore. She needn't have worried. He didn't get further than that. He fell asleep on top of the covers with his jeans and socks still on.

Lester was going to be pissed. Not because of her shameless flirting with Joe. That was all for show and he knew it. No, he was going to be pissed because she was going to spend the night working.

She sighed and looked at the file in her hands. She had to go back to the control room to rescue her shoes anyway, if she scanned the notes while she was there, she could have them on her iPad. Joe wasn't a prolific note taker so she could take her iPad into the tub with her, have a cup of tea and get through his notes in an hour. She could make her own notes and send them to Ranger and then maybe, just maybe, she might actually get a couple hours of sleep…

When she got back to the control room, Zero stood up and took the file from her without asking and Jimmy brought her a cup of tea. "Santos took your shoes up already; he said to tell you everything would be ready on 6 for you. He's already called Ranger who agrees that there isn't much more you can do tonight, your meeting is set for 1000 and Ranger has us cancelling your client meetings tomorrow." He hesitated for a second, "And, apparently, I have the pleasure of you handing my ass to me at your leisure."

Momentary confusion crossed her face and then she grinned and reached inside her top. She pulled out her mic. "Thanks Baby! I forgot I was still wired." She switched it off. "You don't have to worry about me schooling you on the mats. You assumed what I was dressed to make men assume. It's not your fault you didn't realize that I'm your boss. How could you possibly know? It's not like we've met before."

"If it's any consolation, I assumed that you were expensive,." Jimmy said. She grinned.

"Thanks for that." Zero returned with the folder.

"Damn, Tink, I wasn't paying attention before. You look fine tonight!" He said and she twirled. Her chains spun out and Jimmy stopped her.

"May I?" She nodded. He pushed aside the chains on her back, "Jesus." He was looking at the scar on her back and then light dawned, "Holy shit, you're the Pixie!"

"Used to be. Now I'm mostly just Meagan or Tink," she said.

"Or Mrs. Santos." Lester said from the door, "You going to be much longer Gorgeous?"

"Nope, I'm ready to go." Lester pulled her rings out of his vest pocket and slipped them onto her finger, a little post mission tradition that they had developed. The massive pink diamond was just too tempting for the bad guys they went after. When Tink took to the streets she did it without her wedding and engagement rings. Lester was fine with it as long as he got to be the one to put them back on her. She kissed him spontaneously. He was really very sweet.

She took off towards the stairs, "Race ya!" She called and then disappeared into the stairwell. Lester grinned and took off after her. They watched on the monitor as he caught up to her and pinned her to the wall. He held both her hands above her head with one hand and with his free hand he used her keys to scramble the cameras.

"Lucky bastard." Jimmy muttered. He wasn't sure who he was directing the phrase at either; Lester because he got to enjoy the benefits of being married to a woman like her who had so much fire and energy or himself because of the job he landed. An injury during Ranger training ended his career in the military and he'd been floating from job to job since he'd come home. He was having a hard time adjusting to civilian life. During a rehab session for the knee injury that ended his career, he got to talking to another vet about his inability to adjust. The vet had a friend who worked for Rangeman, a call was made, a surgeon was consulted. The doctor, a man named Julio Santos, booked Jimmy in for surgery, did some repairs to the knee all the while bitching about the hatchet job that had been done on him before.

Once another round of rehab was finished he was back to training. His knee was stronger than he could remember it being; the quality of physiotherapy provided by Rangeman was the best possible. Everything was taken care of as part of the job offer they had presented him with including room and board. When he found out who his boss was, he almost needed oxygen. Ranger was a legend. He shouldn't have been as surprised as he was that the Pixie was also part of Rangeman. He had heard about the injuries. Hell, everyone had when she was found outside of that hospital. He didn't realize that she was related to Ranger through marriage. She was one of those women you don't picture dating. Hell, you didn't even think of her as human; she was the ultimate in unattainable.

"There are five women who work here," Zero said. "All special, three of them are spoken for. Tink, real name Meagan Santos. Ella who is Rangeman's mother, Lester and Ranger's aunt and responsible for raising Tink. She's a sweetie and she looks after us. Then there is Bombshell. Formerly known as Stephanie Plum. She's the boss's woman. She's something else. When they ask you to do something, you do it. No questions. Tink and Ranger might as well be the same person. Ella is, well, Ella. You'll understand. And it's best if you read the Bombshell file. Girl's got as much natural ability as Tink and Ranger without the training. She brings chaos but she has great instincts."

"The other two?"

"Connie Rossoli. She's the office manager and works reception. She's connected so if you wanna have a go at her just be warned that when she says she wants you to meet her family, she means that with a capital F. Then there is Lula, former Ho, Bomber's sometimes partner and a whole lot of woman even though there is much less of her now."

"Interesting mix."

"Yes, but we love them all so don't fuck with any of them unless you want to get hurt."

"You gonna do the hurtin'?" Jimmy was fairly certain he could take Zero.

"Nope, they'd do it, then the rest of us would be right in line behind the boss."

RSRSRSRSRSRS

"Yo. Someone better be dead." Ranger said into the phone. At the moment Stephanie was passed out and sprawled on top of him recovering from what had started in the elevator and ended with a trail of clothing that lead to their bedroom. He had been considering rolling her under him for round two when the phone rang.

"Just our case probably.," Lester said into the phone, "and maybe Morelli if he doesn't stop looking up Meagan's skirt. Tink left her ears on. She's put Morelli up on four. The safe house has been compromised. She's going to go through his notes and debrief him fully tomorrow. He must be in rough shape if she isn't demanding a debriefing now." _Fuck!_ If he was hurt, Stephanie would be pissed. She'd find a way to make herself think it was her fault.

"Have you laid eyes on him? Does he need medical attention?_"_

"Yeah, he's dead on his feet but otherwise fine."

"Let him sleep. If she doesn't think it's worth questioning him now, then it isn't; but tell her I am ordering her to get some sleep tonight. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

"Zero is going to scan Morelli's field notes."

"Send me a copy."

Stephanie moaned and was about to turn over. She'd become adept at knowing when he was going to leave for work even in her sleep. He tightened his grip on her. He might have to work but he could do it from their bed. He was going to read Morelli's notes the same way Meagan was going to - on his iPad. There was no need for him to get out of bed yet.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

_AN: Hey the good news is that I will have another chapter to post soon. To all of you who review as Guest that I __can't__ thank personally, Thank you for your reviews. I love them!_


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Chapter two got cut off for some reason and I've gone back and fixed it. It's just the beginning of Ladies Night and Joe Meeting Linda Beals. this chapter is a beast and any medical terminology used in it comes from WebMD. I'm in no way an expert. As always it all belongs to JE.**

cRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Lester's feet were on the edge of the massive soaker tub in their apartment. He wouldn't normally get in the bath with Meagan - you could cook lobsters in Meagan's bath water and he didn't want to injure body parts he was rather fond of - but he would keep her company. He'd pulled up a chair and was using the tub as a foot rest. They were on their second read through of Morelli's notes.

"This isn't good." he said.

"On the bright side we're good stalkers. Beals does want additional security. He's been requesting a female presence."

"Not gonna happen, Meagan. For the same reason we can't use Burrows and why this is such a fuck up. You are his type and not in a good way. You are exactly what he likes in a victim. You know Ranger won't let you go in."

"Who do you suggest then? Stephanie? Ranger is barely letting us use her for this. She's a good investigator, she has a good head on her shoulders and her training is coming along nicely but she isn't ready to go in alone. Not by a long shot."

"Lula could go with her. She's finished the training."

Meagan sat forward in the bath. "Actually..." Lula had taken to the training like a fish to water. She was a natural at everything except for shooting. She was clever, quick, and strong... Lula could be Steph's backup for real now, "I'll send Ranger an email and get Lula on a plane."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Somebody had better be dead." Meagan muttered into the phone. She felt like she had just closed her eyes.

"Yeah, a girl named Tina Gillian." Zero's voice said in her ear. Meagan winced and looked at the clock, 0639. She'd been in bed for three hours, asleep for an hour. Lester had been thorough. She was still slightly boneless.

"I'm up." She turned to wake up Lester but he was already gone, "I'll be down in 10 minutes."

"Santos is already out on a call with Brown, boss said to pick a partner today."

"Leave Hal and Cal on Steph, I imagine I will be with Tank and Ranger at the scene so I'm covered."

"Nope. Ranger said you get a shadow and Santos and Brown threatened me with bodily harm if I let you leave the building alone." She pinched the bridge of her nose. Dying has a way of making the men in your life a little overprotective, she thought. She'd been dropped off in the middle of a jungle by herself before and survived. She'd done countless missions more dangerous yet her husband and surrogate brothers were demanding she take an armed bodyguard to a crime scene loaded with FBI and Trenton's Finest. Yeah that was totally necessary.

"I'll take Jimmy. He should be introduced to the boys in blue so he doesn't get arrested for being big and scary looking," she said finally, "has Ranger already left?"

"No. He's been up and to the gym already. Bomber said he was in the shower. He'll meet you at the scene with Tank. Your meeting has been moved to 0800."

"Thanks." She hung up and swung her legs out of bed. She needed another profiler on staff besides her husband. Yes, they were a good team but he was actually Bobby's partner. She could use him this morning, he knew the case as well as she did and would be able to spot within minutes if it was their killer; but he was out saving the world already.

_Okay, Tink, get dressed. _

She willed her body into waking up and put on a clean bra and underwear, next she strapped a gun to her thigh. She slipped on a black camisole and shoulder holster, added two more guns and then a knife was strapped to her other thigh. On went a black pencil skirt and gun number four went into the waistband. Finally her black blazer went on followed by a pair of 5-inch black stilettos. She clipped her FBI badge and her Rangeman credentials to her hip then shoved a mini stungun, her cell phone and a mini pepper spray into her pocket and she was ready to go.

She caught the elevator to five and picked up Jimmy. He'd remembered how she liked her tea and handed her a To Go cup. "You are a god among men, Jimmy," she said as he stepped into the elevator.

"Just trying to redeem myself by sucking up," he said.

She snorted, "I like you. Which, depending on how you look at it, could be good or bad for you."

"How's that?"

"Today you begin learning how to profile and you get to be my partner whenever Lester is busy."

Jimmy stared. He couldn't believe his luck. "Thank you." it was all he could think of to say. The doors opened to the garage.

"Think you will fit in my car or do we have to take an SUV?"

She bleeped open her Veneno. "I'll make myself fit." he declared.

"Hello, Joe," I said as I walked into the conference room. Ranger had pried me out of bed this morning and told me I had work to do before a meeting. He handed me a folder with my cup of coffee and made me read crime scene notes. He'd removed pictures, thank God, but I was learning about our killer and it was a good thing Batman shared my bed with me or I would be having nightmares. We hoped to have wrapped this case up months ago but then every lead went cold. There were no more killings in Miami, which was to be expected because our prime suspect was living in Princeton; but there were none in New Jersey either. Meagan said it might be a cooling off period. Maybe he was focusing his attentions on the stalker. Either way Joe was still undercover and Meagan was getting frustrated. So why this morning I had to be up at the ass crack of dawn reading about murders and victim profiles was beyond me.

Seeing Joe in the conference room was weirder. I hadn't seen him since the bar. Ranger followed me in a few minutes later. He'd left me with my notes and gone out to save the world or something. Apparently, it didn't take long. He was back after half an hour. Must have been a regular sized villain and not a super one.

"Morelli, we have a body. Meagan and Jimmy are just wrapping up at the scene. They should be back any minute." Ranger said.

Santos and Brown were a few minutes behind Tank and Ranger. Then, much to my complete surprise, Lula walked in. I thought she was still in Miami.

"Hey, White Girl!" She had been spending a lot of time outside by the looks of things. Her skin was a few shades darker than normal. She looked gorgeous. She had lost almost 60lbs. Her clothes fit her and if it weren't for the fire engine red hair, I might not have recognized her.

We hugged. Joe was slack jawed. Lula was beautiful. She had always hidden behind her wardrobe. You often didn't really get to see how pretty she was because you were too busy staring at cleavage. Now, however, she looked like a badass Rangeman employee and had several less miles of cleavage.

"So, why did I get called away from the beach? I was having a fine time staring at all of those half naked hotties."

"No idea. We're waiting for Meagan to come back."

Meagan and Jimmy pulled up and parked in the sea of flashing lights. Several heads turned at the sound of her car engine and she noted, with interest, which men were drooling and which ones were adjusting their pants. She made sure that she had parked so that her side of the car was facing the scene. She spun her legs out and let them get a good look before she got out. She liked to throw new people off balance and she wasn't above using her body to do it. She climbed out gracefully and glided over to the officer in charge who just happened to be Eddie Gazzera.

"Nice car, Santos." He said and she grinned. She liked her married name.

"The body is where?"

"ME already has her. The scene is all yours though."

"Shit, Eddie." She admonished.

"I know. We didn't even make the connection to your case until an hour ago or we wouldn't have moved the body. It's not his typical style."

"Laundry room?"

"Yes." He didn't want to even guess how she knew where the body was. He wasn't privy to all of the details of this case and he wasn't sure he wanted to be.

"He was angry this time. Make sure you pay close attention to any blood evidence. It's possible some of his is there." Jimmy sidled up to her. He was looking nervous. "Don't worry, Jimbo. He cleans up after himself. There isn't much carnage to see. We're here for a vibe."

They took the stairs to the victim's fourth floor apartment first. Meagan slipped on gloves. She was right, he had been angry; he'd trashed the place. "What do you know about profiling?"

"Not much, just what I read last night after you left," he said. She cocked an eyebrow. "Zero told me that you sometimes did profiles for the FBI but that you didn't like to do it. He wasn't sure why. I've heard lots of stories about you, I know it's not because you are squeamish so I thought I'd do some research."

"And?"

"You would rather read people than crime scenes."

"Why?"

"Because a crime scene is too late."

"Well, yes, that's part of it," she agreed but didn't elaborate. "Look around. What do you see?"

"This guy is disorganized. He's trashed her place and it looks like she struggled a lot."

"He was angry, that's why he trashed the place. He took his time killing her and her body will be a mess, but she didn't struggle. Tox screen will most likely show that she had _suxamethonium chloride_ in her system when he killed her. It is a highly effective chemical restraint. She would be able to feel, see and hear but completely unable to move or speak. It is a great way to maximize terror. Look at the pattern of destruction. It's even. It's not random. There won't be any stray fibers found but maybe DNA, though I doubt it.

"He wears a paper suit and gloves. When he's done, he takes it with him unless he's trashed the place like he did this time. Then he takes the victim to the building's laundry room, strips her naked and tosses all of her clothes and the suit into a washing machine full of bleach. We think that's when he rapes her. Her body is usually found in front of the machine fully washed down with bleach inside and out and no evidence of the violation beyond some vaginal tearing."

"So he's organized."

"Very. He's not spontaneous in any way. He trashed the room because he wanted us to know he was pissed but he was selective in what he chose to destroy. Only personal items, things that potentially have great sentimental value, but he leaves alone impersonal decorations."

"And you know for sure it's this guy you are watching?"

"Pretty sure, we just can't prove it because he doesn't leave evidence."

"So if you know who it is, why are we here?"

"To make sure it was him this time and not a copycat. There was a lot of press in Miami and copying him would be a good way to hide a non-related murder." She snapped off her gloves, "We're done here."

"Don't we need to go downstairs to the laundry?"

"Nope. If they'd left the body than yes, but they didn't so there isn't much point. If there is anything to find, the CSIs and TPD will find it. Without the body all we're going to see down there is a washing machine filled with water and bleach and a paper suit. The room will be otherwise spotless."

"How do we know it's him?"

"Victimology is very specific. She has no family pictures because she doesn't keep them. He only goes after petite women who are orphaned, no family to be hurt by her loss, are naturally blonde, and in what he perceives as a man's job. She fit all of those criteria."

"You know, Tink, that kind of describes you."

"Not kind of." They went back down and ran into Carl and Big Dog. Normally there would be some good natured teasing and begging to drive her car. This time Big Dog surprised them all and gave her a hug.

"You be careful, Princess." TPD had adopted Joe's nickname for her. "He's met you and you have that look like you might want to become a massive pain in his ass." He said.

"We've heard what you are doing. This wasn't your fault. You have been pressing his buttons for months, something else has happened to set him off." Carl said. Boy did she know it.

"You boys are sweet. I'm fine." She grabbed Carl's wrist and check his watch for the time, "I have a meeting that started five minutes ago. Can you email me your notes and any pictures?"

"You got it, Princess." Carl said, "You got a kojak in that thing?" he gestured towards her car.

"No, but how awesome would that be?" She answered, "Pino's tonight?" They agreed and she went towards her car, Jimmy right on her heels.

She met Ranger and Tank at her car.

"Any point in us being here?" Ranger asked.

"Nope. It's him." Gazzera waved her over and she sighed, Ranger squeezed her hand briefly. "Let me finish up with Eddie. He's going to want to know what I saw in there; unfortunately, it's nothing new. I'll meet you back at the office."

She walked away from them and Tank looked at Jimmy, "The tracker on his car puts him two blocks from here. You stick to Tink like glue, got that?" Jimmy nodded.

RSRSRSRSRSRSR

While we were waiting on Meagan to come back, Lula and I caught up. She had been training in Miami for a couple of months and appeared to have liked it there. "To be honest, white girl, I'm thinking of staying there. I know you and Ranger are there a lot so we'll still see each other. But I like it better there."

"I bet you do. This has nothing to do with rumors of you and a certain computer expert, does it?" I teased. Tank had been like a bear with a sore paw since the rumors of Lula and Rangeman Miami's computer expert, Silvio, being an item made their way to Trenton. Lula smiled shyly and since Lula didn't have a shy bone in her body, I knew I was right on the money.

"I don't think that's all of it, but I love the guys there. It's fun being the only girl. They spoil me. I ain't never been spoiled before." She said, "Don't get me wrong; they're still kicking my ass. But they take care of me after."

"Hey, I know the feeling." I said.

"Yeah, but then I barged in and took over right, Steph?" Meagan said behind me.

"Nah, they love you but they are scared of you. They adore me. You're no threat." I grinned. Meagan and I were currently on a mission to torture the boys of Rangemen. Make them tell us who they loved better. I firmly had Hal. He was all mine, she had this new boy whipped pretty fast but I also suspected Zero was defecting to her camp especially after her distraction outfit. But, then again, Manny was mine. The competition wasn't real. Every time one of the guys chose a side we would make it our mission to turn them back. Don't think our husbands were off limits in this contest either. I just about had Les the other day when I brought him a doughnut out of my secret stash. She retaliated and I found her kicking the shit out of one of the recruits while Ranger watched. He'd been smiling.

At the end of the day though I walked by her office and saw that she had her feet in Lester's lap and was practically purring while she told him about her day and he massaged her calves. I was walking back to my cubicle when Ranger dragged me into his office and kissed me before locking his door and tossing me on the sofa. When he was done with me, he said, "No contest, Babe, although Lester and I are enjoying being fought over so keep it up." I hadn't told Meagan about the comment yet, revenge would be in order. She was apparently reading my mind because she leaned in and whispered, "Lester is enjoying the spoiling too much. I suspect Ranger is, too. How do you feel about going on another cleanse?"

I grinned and then projected my voice, "I've been feeling sluggish, too. Last time we went on that diet I had sooo much energy. I have no idea where it came from. Should we start today?"

"No time like the present." Meagan picked up our bag of doughnuts and tossed it. Lula eyed us suspiciously. Ranger and Lester both swallowed hard. Meagan grinned evilly at me and then blank faced and looked back at the room. Joe was smiling. He loved that two more alpha males were no match for the Jelly doughnut hormones.

"Why am I getting an ice cream headache while I am drinking hot chocolate?" Lula murmured.

"That only happens when..." I turned and there was Jeanne Ellen Burrows. She nodded to the room and then looked at me, "Stephanie. Good to see you." My feelings towards Jeanne were mixed. Our paths had crossed professionally here and there and she had been a pain in my ass but once I was no longer in her way she had been helpful. It was rumored that she and Ranger had a thing back in the day but I couldn't exactly complain about it with Joe in the room without looking like a hypocrite.

Jeanne looked at Meagan, "I always thought you'd be taller," she said., "Your work in Brussels was impressive. I didn't know it was possible to do that with a shoelace. It's even more impressive now that I know how much you had to stretch to do it?"

Meagan grinned, "I didn't. I stood on a chair." Jeanne laughed.

"Now I'm just jealous," she said. Meagan gestured to an empty seat.

"Now that Catwoman has graced us with her presence, the gang's all here." Meagan said to Ranger, "Unless you called in anyone else."

Ranger shook his head. He was probably wondering what was going through the heads of his men, probably for the first time ever at Rangeman the room was almost 50% women. I was the only one in the room not dressed to kill. Literally, my gun was upstairs, I'd put it on before I left the building though. Ranger looked at Morelli. "Talk." he ordered.

Joe glared at Ranger out of habit and then looked at his partner, his mouth in a stubborn line. Meagan, who was still standing, walked around the table and smacked Joe upside the head, then her look dared anyone to smile. Yeah, nobody was that dumb. Not even Ranger fucked with Tink when she was pissed.

Jeanne leaned over to me "I've always wanted to see her in action. She's the reason he trained me." she whispered. Really? Blonde, gorgeous, smart, natural ability, it made sense, "always wondered if I lived up to her."

"She might spar with you later." I whispered back,"you could find out." Jeanne was actually alright, I decided.

"Talk," Ranger repeated and Meagan glared at him, Ranger wouldn't say please to Joe, he wouldn't back down either but he had thawed a bit.

"About two weeks ago I spotted a tail. I managed to lose him and double back. It was the goon who had tested Cupcake when she and Manoso did the consultation at Beals' brother-in-law's house. This was the first time I spotted a tail. After that they must have realized I was on to them. They didn't even bother to hide it. I stayed with Linda every night for about two weeks and stayed away from the safe house because I didn't want it found. She suggested that we move in together, her father would get us a place and she would tell him she would have it swept for bugs. Repeatedly. She wanted privacy with her new boyfriend, me, and she didn't want him listening in on her sex life. I brought the arrangement up with Ranger and we decided to table that discussion until necessary.

"Then about four days ago when I took Linda home with me, there was a surprise waiting for me there and Linda was less than pleased about it. She stormed off. I caught up to her and talked her down or so I thought. Two nights ago I got to the safe house and found it full of bugs and the surprise was back. I disposed of it. I figured that anyone watching would enjoy that show. Last night it was back again and this time there were shots fired at the house. I hauled ass and got out of there."

"What was the surprise?" I asked.

"Terri Gillman." Shit.

"Can I ask what may seem like a dumb question?" Lula asked and Joe nodded, "If Linda knows that you are a fed and that your relationship is a fake, why the hell does she give a shit if you're banging Mafia Barbie in your safe house?"

I looked at Joe and saw the slight tightening around his mouth. The real question was why he was bringing her to the safe house in the first place. Then the light bulb went off, "Because he's sleeping with her. She doesn't think their relationship is fake anymore. Jesus, Joe."

"Morelli?" Ranger cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Steph's right. Only she's not the only one who doesn't think it's fake anymore." Joe said,

"What I would like to know is how Terri found the safe house in the first place." Meagan said.

"When was the last time you saw Terri?" I asked. I had a hunch. If I was right, I was going to have to fight not to laugh myself silly. This would be too easy.

"Three weeks ago I ran into her in a bar." Joe said, "She said she knew that you and I were quits and wanted to rekindle some things. That was before Linda and I... I told her that I was working and that we'd talk when I got back."

"Did she give you anything?" I asked.

Ranger caught my drift and said, "Empty your pockets." Joe stood up and did. "There." Ranger picked up the money clip Joe was using, "She planted a tracker on you."

"Don't be embarrassed, Joe, it happens to me all the damn time." I dumped my bag on the table. There were no less than 7 things with trackers hidden in them. I was getting pretty good at sorting them out. Ranger grinned. Meagan pulled out one of her guns.

"This one's my favorite." She said as she pulled out a gun, she took out the clip and added it to the pile of trackers. "Puts a completely new spin on the term tracer rounds."

"It's been on you for a month. How long have you known it was there?" Lester laughed.

"A month."

"Damn."

"It was sneaky. I'll give you that. Ranger put it there?"

"Bobby. While you were in the firing range."

"Ah."

"Seems like your ex is taking notes from the men of Rangeman," I said, "The question is why?" and then a thought occured to me, the latest victim, her name, Tina Gillian, was awfully similar to Terri Gillman, was that the reason why she was chosen? "Uh is Terri still blonde?" I asked, knowing the answer already.

"She is. That's why I'm here I bet." Jeanne said. Ranger nodded. "She fits the victimology. Stephanie and Lula are going to guard Linda? So what does that make me? Bait or eyes on Terri?"

"Tink is going to be the bait." Ranger said, "She's already pissed him off once. She's been to the latest crime scene, put on a bit of a show to get his attention; and as expected, everyone on the scene deferred to her because she's the Pixie. We're hoping he puts her in his sights."

"I'm sorry, what!?" Lester and Joe said at the same time.

"I don't think so. No way. Not going to happen." Lester said.

"I agree with Santos." Joe said, "No fucking way."

Meagan was standing beside Jeanne Ellen. Jeanne got to her feet. She pulled out her weapon and grabbed Meagan and held it to her head. Meagan reacted instantly. Her hands came up and she ejected the clip out of the gun without looking, caught it and used it to jab Jeanne in the bridge of her nose. Jeanne loosened her grip on Meagan enough that Meagan was able to use her weight to throw Jeanne off balance. She threw an elbow into Jeanne's ribs, grabbed her wrist and twisted it painfully until she dropped the gun. Meagan continued to twist until Jeanne's hand was behind her back and then she bent her over the table. I'm not sure when her gun found it's way to her hand but it had and it was pressed to the base of Jeanne Ellen's skull.

If I hadn't actually seen it I wouldn't have believed it. It literally took only a couple of seconds. Meagan never registered surprise at the sudden threat; she barely showed any emotion at all. It had been mechanical; like it hadn't required any thought. I'd seen the same expression on Ranger's face before when he was in action. Complete control. I bet her heart rate wasn't even elevated.

"Sorry. Reflex." She said and helped Jeanne up. She leaned across the table and grabbed a box of tissue and handed it to Jeanne Ellen.

"I think she can take care of herself, boys." Jeanne said holding a wad of tissue to her nose. It was bleeding and she would probably have a couple of black eyes, but her nose wasn't broken.

"Yeah, she can handle herself like that but what if he shoots her full of tranquilizer and she can't move?" Lester demanded.

"I will be moving with a bodyguard and I will have a subcutaneous tracker. We know he likes to take his time. If he takes me, you will have to find me before he can kill me," Meagan said.

"No, Meagan, just no," Lester objected. When they were working he NEVER used her name. He called her TINK like anyone else. He said it was so he didn't see the woman he loved and saw the operative instead. She did, however, just about die the day after they got married. Her heart had stopped twice and she almost bled out. It was still pretty fresh for everyone. The idea of her deliberately baiting a serial killer wasn't something he was thrilled about. I didn't really blame him. I didn't like it either. She and Ranger were very close. I don't know how he'd take losing her a second time. Also, she was my friend, I wasn't in any hurry to lose her either.

"Les, I'm going to do this to draw attention away from Terri. She doesn't know the danger she is in now. He killed last night for the first time in months because of her. He's going to start to focus on her. Jeanne is going to keep eyes on her. All I am going to do is make myself visible. It's a long shot because I think he will be going after Terri."

"You know this how?" Joe asked.

"She hurt his daughter and she's his type. You are out of it now. If when this is over you want to reconnect with Linda, by all means do it. You are a target now, too. You stay on lockdown until it's over," Meagan said.

"Like hell I will." Joe said.

She tossed her credentials at him, "Don't make me pull rank on you, Morelli."

"I'm not going to sit around and do nothing while you wander around as bait. It's not going to happen in a million years."

"No." Ranger spoke up, "you will be trading jobs with Tink and helping run the investigation from the safety of the building. She's right. It's too dangerous for you on the streets right now."

The meeting might have degenerated after that if Lula hadn't spoken up. "I think we all need a time out. Steph and I still don't know what the hell we are doing, and it's getting a little testosterone heavy. Burrows needs an ice pack and we all need lunch. I say we go to our corners and come back this afternoon."

"I'm with Lula". Tank said. He'd been silent for most of the meeting. He smiled at Lula who ignored him.

"Should I be dying my hair?" Jeanne asked.

"So far his only interest has been in blondes so it wouldn't hurt." Meagan said.

"Looks like I'm headed to the spa for the morning." She nodded to us, "Ladies."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Princess, it's about the most boring job on the planet. If you can't talk to your partner, you go insane. I don't have anything against Hector, besides that he's probably a little psychotic, but he doesn't speak English." He had her there. Hector was a little crazy, "Pair me up with anyone else."

"It's three hours. You will survive," she said. It had been two days since the meeting. She'd had to pull rank and Joe was losing his mind.

"You know, Tink, he's right," Manny said. She was about to have a revolution on her hands when Ranger and Les walked up. Ranger saw Meagan's amused expression and even though his expression didn't even change in the slightest the question was there.

"You don't do monitor duty so you don't know," Zero said, and then he started back-pedaling "not that you have to. I mean we know you're busy."

"Meagan?" Ranger asked.

"The guys were just saying that if you can't have a conversation with your partner while on monitor duty you will die of boredom. I was just telling them that it wasn't necessary."

"The core team hardly ever does it. So you guys don't understand. I bet if you had to do a six hour shift where you couldn't talk to your partner you'd have more sympathy." Joe said.

Ranger cocked an eyebrow, "I'll take that bet. In fact, for 12 hours the monitors will be run by members of the core team. Bobby has to look after a patient so he's out. You guys pick two teams."

There was intense discussion. I was considered part of the core team. I was the head of Investigations. "Tank's out. He can go actual weeks without speaking." Manny said, "Ranger and Les?"

"Nope. Bad idea." Zero said, "He and Tink are both ex-Special Forces so whoever we pair with them will be quiet because Ranger and Tink will be. No. We put Lester and Bomber together. No way can they keep their mouths shut for 6 hours."

"Hey!" I stomped my foot.

"Les is Special Forces too." Meagan said evenly.

"We have our teams." Joe said, "What are the terms?"

"Two weeks offline for the core team when this case is over." Meagan said.

"And 24 hours offline starting tomorrow at 0800," Lester said.

"Doughnuts for a week for me," I said.

"Silence on monitor duty for a week," Ranger said with an evil grin.

"If we win, shifts on the monitors go to 2 hours a shift for a week and Bomber has to buy us all doughnuts. And, we each get an extra day off" Zero said.

"Get Tank," Ranger said. Tank came grumbling out of his office. The bet was explained to him.

"Fine," Tank said. Always an arbiter of fairness he laid out the ground rules, "Rules are, you can't talk to your partner unless it's related to a client emergency. Phone is only to be used to speak to clients. Rangeman employees are only to call with case-related information. You are not allowed to speak to each other through any form of sign language. There is to be no texting or emailing back and forth. Lester and Steph start in an hour only because I need Ranger and Tink before they do their shift."

"I want to add a rule." Joe said, "No texting to anyone at all unless it's client related."

"Done," Meagan said, "we need our hour to plan."

We filed into Tank's office. He called up Bobby and we sat down, "Nice rules Tank." Bobby growled. "I could use the vacation and the day off tomorrow."

"Shut up. Ranger and I have a plan. It's too bad Vinnie's is closed; we could have used Connie." Meagan said.

"Frank and Helen are clients." Ranger pointed out, "plus there are both of our families,"

"True," Meagan said, "and we have time to go sign up Mary Lou and Lenny as clients."

"Tank draw up a schedule. Steph can last about ten minutes before she either needs to eat or speak," Ranger said.

"Hey! I'm right here!" I reminded them. I have no idea when they communicated their genius plan but they did proving they both have ESP. Just as our shift was about to start, Joe came into the room, "Good luck Cupcake. Just remember that Boston Creams are my favorite too." Meagan gave him a dirty look, crouched down beside Lester and whispered something in his ear. He turned and kissed her hard on the mouth and then grinned from ear to ear. I could guess what she said. Well played, Meagan, I thought.

"And your shift starts now." Tank said. Meagan bent down low to pick up the pencil that had fallen out of her hair when Lester kissed her and Lester took full advantage of the floor show to ogle his wife. I'm not going to lie. I may have ogled her a little bit, too.

Ten minutes went by and the phone rang. I answered it."Stephanie, it's your mother. I'm having a problem with the security system. Your grandmother keeps tripping off the alarm when she tries to sneak out the window."

"Why is she doing that?" That led to 20 minutes of my mom going into in depth gossip about the burg. When I got her off of the phone I promised that someone would be out to see if they could do something.

I sat for another 20 minutes when the phone rang again, "Stephanie, how good to hear your voice!"

"Hi, Mrs. Manoso, would you like to speak to Carlos."

"No, just whoever is on duty right now. I know he's busy." She said.

"Oh, that would be me. What can I do for you?"

We chatted for a bit before she explained her problem. The tracking device in her car was on the fritz. It kept shorting out her sat nav and she was wondering if someone could come fix it. I got off the phone. An hour and a half had already gone by. Wow. The phone rang.

"Oh, yay, you answered my first official call to Rangeman."

"Hi, Mary Lou. What can I do for you?"

"Well, the guys are here installing the alarm system and I was just wondering if you think cameras in the yard are necessary." So we talked about that for a bit. For the rest of the shift, clients called with problems and I was never off the phone for longer than ten minutes. Sure, the clients were all friends and family but still, the shift ended and I didn't have to speak to Lester once.

"That was cheating." Joe said.

"Actually, I think you will find we followed the rules exactly." Lester said.

"We have to break them." Joe said to Manny and Zero.

"Meagan and Ranger once spent six days not talking while on assignment. Six hours is nothing," Lester said. And it was. Unlike our shift the phone didn't peep once. The guys tried to distract Ranger and Tink but they were like palace guards. Neither one of them reacted. Meagan would lean forward and Ranger would glance at her and press buttons to enlarge an image on the screen. She would either sit back and he would shrink the screen or Meagan would call and send a team out. Their entire shift was uneventful. It was like the bad guys in Trenton sensed who was watching them and didn't dare step out of line.

"I believe their shift was over five minutes ago." Tank said, "I believe it was supposed to be Vince and Hal on duty now. Where are they?"

"On a call. They should be back in 20." Manny said.

"Thank you for volunteering to take their shift." Tank said ominously, "Cal will help you and tell Binkie I want him in my office,"

Meagan and Ranger stood up. She stretched on her toes and yawned, flashing a navel ring that I didn't know she had. "That was fun. We should do it again sometime."

"Don't listen ahead. We'll finish it in the car on the way to the cabin." Ranger said.

"Yeah, Tink, no spoilers. Seriously." Hector said.

Meagan and Ranger took out ear pieces and handed them to Hector. "Tank has all the power. He's the one that downloaded the book." The boys were staring open-mouthed at them.

"It was a six-hour shift where nothing happened. You need to do something to keep your mind occupied," Meagan said.

"That's cheating," Joe said again.

"I don't think so. There were no rules stating that we couldn't listen to books. Just no music."

We were surrounded by angry goldfish.

"I think we should make it a rule now though, don't you, Tink?" Tank asked.

"Absolutely."

"Why are you smiling?" I looked up at Ranger who looked incredibly pleased with himself.

"I'm just thinking about how quiet it's going to be around here for the next week," he said. He checked his watch and tapped Meagan's arm, "We'd better go, Hermana." She got to her feet, gave Lester a quick kiss and followed Ranger down the stairs to the garage.

"Where are they going?" Zero asked.

"They have a surveillance shift to do." Lester said and I shuddered. Surveillance after six hours on monitor duty? Their asses were going to be completely numb. "What do you say, Beautiful? You inviting Bobby, Tank and I up for a victory dinner?"

"Sounds good to me!"

RSRSRSRSRSRS

Lester Santos was bored for the very first time in his life. He'd never before been bored and he didn't know what to do with himself which, he supposed, was the point. We aren't talking the kind of boredom that comes from an afternoon of sitting around doing nothing which is what he did in front of the monitors. We're talking the kind of boredom that develops when you feel like your life is missing something. His life was missing something. He had officially retired from the military; he wasn't going in the wind anymore. He never thought he would miss it but he did. He missed the adrenaline. Any action lately had been few and far between. No redecorating jobs, no major busts, and the work on the Beals case was interesting but it wasn't exactly a thrill.

He sat in his office looking over the request sent to him by Generals Frakes and Vadrine and he was torn. He didn't want to leave Meagan. She still wasn't right from everything she'd been through; she often woke up screaming in the night. She'd always been plagued with nightmares, but they were worse than he'd ever seen them and he wasn't going to leave her knowing that she needed him. She was being treated for PTSD and she had developed severe claustrophobia. Being locked in a trunk for days would have that effect on anybody. He was contemplating running it by Bobby when there was a knock on his office door.

He looked up when the door opened, "I'm going to kill Morelli." Tank said and Lester smiled. He liked Morelli. "He's worse at being locked up than Bomber is."

"And you want me to fix this how?"

Tank tossed a folder on Lester's desk. Lester opened it and quickly scanned it, "It will be a dull job but maybe you two can talk shit and he'll feel like he's being useful and won't be pissing me off anymore. At the very least it's a couple of hours out of the office and hopefully putting an end to nuisance calls. Your wife has already okayed it." Lester grinned; of course she knew he was bored.

"Where is Morelli now?"

"Staring at the monitors because he has nothing better to do," Tank replied and left. Lester read the rest of the file, got up from his desk and tucked his gun into the back of his pants. He opened the door and stepped right into the monitor room. He slapped Morelli on the back of the head and Morelli took his feet off of the desk and looked up.

"Come on, man. Let's go find something to do. Bring your gun."

"With an offer like that how could I possibly refuse?"

They got to the garage and Morelli looked longingly at Meagan's new wheels. "If we didn't have to blend in man, we'd be in the Devil's Lambo." Lester said, "It's not exactly subtle." The Devil's Lambo was a fitting description of the car. There was something sinister about the lines of the Veneno and the black red just added to that. Meagan had spoken to a friend at Lambourghini and had him choose the color. It was somewhere between black cherries and blood.

"How did she get one so fast?"

"She knows people."

"That's a common answer when it comes to her, isn't it?"

Lester grinned and beeped open one of the black Explorers and climbed in the front. Twenty minutes later they were parked down the block from a jewelry store under a burnt out street light and staring at a dark empty street. "This is only marginally more exciting than staring at the monitors," Joe observed.

"Yeah but you gotta look at it this way; it's like the difference between watching a ball game on TV and at Yankee Stadium. It's about the experience." Lester replied. Joe chuckled and took a sip of his coffee.

"Why are we here?"

"A couple of punks keep tripping the alarm at that jewelry store down there; by the time we get there they are gone. Nicky Nicky Fucking Nine Doors. It's a waste of our time and resources so we are here to strongly discourage it." Twenty more minutes went by without even so much as foot traffic down the street. Lester blew out a sigh and slumped back in his seat.

"You look bored." Joe said.

"I am bored." Lester replied.

"I get the feeling that's not a good thing…"

"I dunno. I've never been bored before. It's a new experience for me."

"How can you be bored married to Meagan? I'd think she would keep you on your toes."

Lester laughed, "Meagan Harris is an adrenaline rush personified and I'm never bored around her. Problem is, I only see her for a couple of hours a day at the most. My marriage isn't in any way the problem. Bobby says I'm having reentry issues now that I'm done with the military. I can't re-up because I can't do that to Meagan. She'd be supportive but she'd also want to come with me and would hate that she can't. But my particular skill sets aren't exactly high in demand here. The Psychology shit is her deal. I just back her up when she needs it. I need a new focus that isn't personnel or paperwork." Having no answer to Lester's dilemma Joe abandoned that line of conversation.

"I don't like that she's out there as bait. I don't know how you are standing it."

"I fucking hate it but it's her job and she is good at it. I fell in love with all of her, not just the good bits. She can't stay behind a desk any more than I can and asking her to stay away from trouble is about as smart as commenting on a woman's weight." Joe was about to say something more when they finally had some action. Two teenagers dressed in black hoodies with the hoods pulled up over their faces, walked up to the store. "They could be more obvious," Lester said casually and tilted his head slightly as if trying to figure out just how stupid the punks in front of them were. "Stay back and let me handle it, I've got energy to burn." He got out of the car without bothering to do normal things like make noise and strolled over to the two punks about to break into the shop.

"The response time for the security company has been 8 minutes the last three times we set off the alarms so let's grab as much shit as we can in 4 and book," Punk Number one said.

"You got your gloves on right?"

"Yeah."

Lester stood behind them with a grin on his face, just waiting, watching to see how they were tripping the alarms. One of the punks produced a lock picking kit and spent about five minutes working the lock. Amateurs. The alarm tripped as soon as they opened the door, "Okay, four minutes starting now."

"Boo!" Lester said behind them and they both jumped and yelled. "I'm sorry am I early? I can come back in five minutes." He motioned over his shoulder with his thumb, a look of innocence on his face. They both made to take off and Lester's arm shot out and grabbed the back of the lead kid's sweatshirt and yanked him backwards into his partner then stepped out of the way as they both landed on their asses. One of them reached for a gun and Joe stepped up weapon drawn and stopped his partner from doing the same while Lester efficiently disarmed and cuffed his associate. "A water gun? You've got to be fucking kidding me." Lester handed the gun to Joe who held a similar one in his hand. His look of disgust mirrored Lester's "Here's a good safety tip, don't bring fake weapons to a robbery."

"It's a really great way to get yourself ventilated," Joe added as they dragged the kids back to the Explorer. They locked them into the back and climbed back in. A technical team was on the way to replace the damaged locks and reset the codes.

As soon as they saw the flash of the lights of the back up car they pulled away. "Boo?" Joe asked with a grin.

"It felt right. Why? Too much?"

"No, I liked it."

Once they got the punks dropped off and booked they decided they had earned a pizza. Lester took them to Shorty's. They walked into the bar and Lester held up 5 fingers and then two. Two pepperoni and five Rangeman pizzas, fully loaded pizzas with extra hot sauce. Heartburn on a pie, basically. Might as well treat the office. Lester walked over to the pool table and Joe dropped a twenty on it. Lester shrugged indifferently and produced a bill of his own. He let Joe break sinking two stripes in succession then scratched. Lester ran the table from that point.

"It would have been easier if you'd just pocketed the money from the beginning. It would have saved me from looking like an idiot. What the fuck was that?"

"I'm gifted," Lester said with a shrug. "Besides being a Sex God and exceptionally good looking, I apparently have exceptional visual acuity as well as 'super human' spatial intelligence. Whatever. It means I never miss what I'm aiming at."

"You were a sniper."

"I am a sniper. I haven't stopped being a sniper; there just hasn't been much call for those particular skill lately. Why are you stressing about Meagan in the field? Is there something you left out of your report?"

"Gut says this is very wrong. That we are missing something big and obvious. I don't think he's the killer we think he is."

"Why?"

"I spent a lot of time around him and, to be honest, I don't think he's smart enough. The man doesn't do anything without staff there to back him up. He gets off on giving people orders. Sure he hates strong women but he doesn't have the control required to keep the crime scenes clean."

"He's former military and a pilot. He might have more control than you think."

"I'm former military and I have a short fuse. Ask anyone who saw Steph and me fighting in the Police Station. If I were to kill someone, I doubt I'd be detail-oriented enough to take all of the forensic counter measures that this killer does."

"That's fair, I guess," Lester mused. "What's your take on the wife and daughter?"

"Mom is Edna Mazur 40 years ago. Does everything her husband says to the letter, is repressed and ready to break free. Linda is the apple of her father's eye and could get away with murder as long as she keeps herself in a woman's role. Nurse works for him. I'm sure he's connected; I just think that if he's actually the one doing the killing, then he's not working alone." Joe took a swig of his beer, "That's not my only concern."

"Yeah?"

"Beals lived in Boston before he lived in Miami; he didn't show up in any of our checks because they were living in a friend's house while Beals was getting his company established. I want to look at timing. I just think it's interesting that three of the cities Meagan owns property in happen to be places Beals has lived. I think we should get someone checking to see if Boston is where he started killing and when."

"You think Meagan doesn't just fit the victimology; you think she's his original focus?"

"I'm saying we should look into it. I don't like coincidences."

Lester checked his watch, "It's 2200. Let's get back to Haywood. We'll give it to Hector. I don't think he knows how to sleep. If there is a connection on paper somewhere, he'll find it. The problem is that if their military careers crossed paths, we won't be able to find it. Meagan wasn't kidding when she said that her record had been redacted to the point of being useless. There might be a crossover that we won't be able to find. If she crossed paths with him in Iraq or Afghanistan she might not have met him at all. You saw how Jimmy looks star struck by her? It's because she's famous in certain circles. Beals may have spotted her on a base and heard the stories."

They were silent for the drive back to Rangeman. When the gate didn't go up right away when he pulled into the garage and he had to actually fob the gate open, Lester became tense. "Something' s wrong. The guys on the monitors open the gates for Rangeman vehicles unless there is an emergency."

"Another body?"

"Maybe," Lester said. He parked the car and got out. He scanned the lot and didn't see Ranger's truck, "They should have been back by now." Lester and Joe took the stairs two at a time to five. Steph and Tank were standing in the control room. Tank's mouth was in a tight line and Steph was pale.

When Steph saw Joe and Lester her lower lip trembled, "They're gone, Les."

"Maybe they got a lead and…" Lester started knowing he was grasping at straws and that they would call in anything they found.

"No, man. Their relief found his truck empty at the house they were supposed to be surveilling, all trackers inside. Julio hasn't been down to do the sub-que ones yet. We have no way of knowing where they are."

"What about history? Do we know..." Tank held up his hand to stop Lester from speaking.

"Hector pulled up their history and found this security footage from a Starbucks."

He pressed a couple of buttons on one of the keyboards in front of the screens.

The footage showed Meagan and Ranger walking into the Starbucks; they were obviously bickering affectionately and from the way he gestured towards her feet it obviously had something to do with Meagan's lack of footwear. For some strange reason she was only wearing socks. They walked up to the cash and placed their order then went around the counter to wait for their tea to come up. They both visibly tensed then Ranger grabbed Meagan and tossed her out of the way. He dove right after her as a large black panel van crashed through the side of the building. They both came up, guns drawn as the building flooded with men dressed in black with ski masks on. The men from the truck began firing at everything and the Barristas behind the counter, went down. Ranger managed to take out four of the men before he got tasered. Meagan was a smaller target and harder to hit. She managed to tag two more men before she was tasered and went down. The remaining men dragged the two of them out of the building and that's when the video cut out.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Two kids in school and a college student cousin living in my basement asking for help with homework, means my writing had to take a little break. I'm aiming to post story updates on Mondays and Thursdays. Thanks to my Beta, Di for everything she does. I own nothing it's all JE's.**

Ranger woke up in shackles. His arms were chained to the ceiling and although he was fully stretched out his feet were flat on the floor. He had been disarmed but that's about it. He could still feel his wallet in his back pocket but his keys were gone. He kept his eyes closed listening for the sound of anyone else in the room, all he heard was the deep even breathing of somebody asleep. He cracked an eye and saw Meagan sitting in a simple wooden dining room chair, her hands cuffed to the arm rests. She was still out cold. He didn't know how long she had fought after he went down; but that didn't matter, her insomnia meant that if she went out she stayed out longer than most. Fortunately, all of her clothes were still intact. All he could do at this point was wait. He didn't want them to know that he was conscious yet.

_"__Fuck again?"_ Meagan cursed, in Finnish of all languages, and he smiled. She looked up at him and assessed the situation. "You all right?" She mouthed and he nodded then looked up at his wrists then back down at her with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it." she muttered. She tried to slip the cuffs, wouldn't be the first time she'd done it; but it would be no joy this time. They were too tight. She looked around the room again and her eyes fixated on Ranger's belt. "Maybe we leave this part out when we debrief? I don't think Stephanie and Lester are going to like it." She shifted her chair closer to Ranger and then used her feet to peel off her socks. She stuck one leg out and began unbuckling his belt with her toes.

Yeah, no way was he volunteering this information to Stephanie. She got the buckle undone and began pulling his belt off and cursed when it got snagged on a belt loop. She inched even closer and used her teeth to finish taking his belt off. He really, really wasn't going to volunteer this information to Stephanie.

She got the belt in her hand, used the prong of the belt buckle to pick the locks on her cuffs and freed herself. She stood on the chair beside Ranger and groaned. There was no way she could reach the locks on Ranger's shackles by standing on the chair and she cursed her diminutive stature… Not for the first time in her life. "Brace yourself Carlos," she said softly then got down off the chair and moved it out of the way. She got a running start, launched herself at her long time friend and wrapped her legs around his waist. Then, belt in her teeth, she shimmied up his body until her legs were wrapped around his broad chest, her breasts were in his face but, more importantly, she could reach the locks on his restraints. He felt the flex of her strong thighs as she worked and tried not to think about what she was doing.

"Hurry up Tink, before I have to let Lester kill me," he muttered. She freed one hand which he then used to hoist her ass up further and to add additional support so she could get the other shackle unlocked. Once freed, he lowered her straight to the ground. He pulled her into a quick hug and kissed the top of her head. "Lester is a lucky guy. You've got talents I didn't want to know you had." one side of her mouth kicked up in a half smile.

"All right, Carlos, time to stop being decorative. Do your thing."

"With pleasure." He picked up the chair she'd been sitting on and shattered it against the wall. She grabbed one of the broken legs to use as a club if necessary and they waited. They didn't have to wait long. The noise of the chair breaking brought their guards rushing in guns drawn. Ranger was waiting by the door and snapped the first one's neck, Meagan grabbed the guard's gun on his way down and shot the second guard in the head before he'd even registered what happened to his partner.

She dropped and began searching the bodies while Ranger stood watch. Their luck was holding. There were only two guards and their weapons had silencers. She found a couple of extra clips for the weapons, an iPhone and a knife. She pocketed the phone and pulled the knife out.

"Hurry up, we're about to get more company." He glanced down just as she shoved something else in her pocket and then dragged both bodies fully into their cell. Ranger signalled that two more guards were on the way and Meagan stood ready to shoot. They neutralized the guards and put them in the cell with the other bodies. It didn't take long to realize that they were in the basement of a rather large house.

"Reminds me of home," Meagan whispered. "Only daddy didn't have a dungeon in the basement." Ranger smirked and motioned for silence. They could hear footsteps coming so they stepped into a doorway of what looked like a storage room and Meagan tried the door. It was unlocked. She opened it and they slipped inside and scanned the room. "Carlos," she whispered. He turned his attention briefly away from the men coming down the hall. If he'd been a different man he would have gasped in shock. They were in a shrine to the two of them.

There were pictures of them in uniform, newspaper articles about Rangeman, magazine articles about Humphries from the year before. They did a quick scan of the room. "Shit, Carlos." Meagan held up a photograph of the two of them. In it they were sitting on his grandmother's front step holding hands. She had her head on his shoulder and he was kissing her hair. She was wearing one of his hooded sweatshirts over a pair of cut offs and she had a cast on her right arm. The picture had been taken when she was 12. She shoved the picture inside of her top.

"Lock it down." He said sternly. The order was as much for himself as it was for her, "We've got company. Collect anything important and we'll analyze it later." He went to the door to wait and she went to work going through the room. She heard the telltale whistle of a silencer a couple of times and she slipped out of the door behind Ranger. They weren't going to investigate further. The name of the game was get the fuck out of Dodge. They kept trying doors, looking for exits until, finally, they found a mudroom and were able to slip out back. It took all of about two seconds to determine that they were in the middle of fucking nowhere in the middle of the night and they hoofed it to the tree line on the edge of the property.

"Where the fuck are we?" She asked when they got there.

"Damned if I know." Ranger said, "Philly maybe? What happened to celestial navigation?"

"I left my sextant and star charts in my other bra." She quipped back.

"We need wheels."

"Would you like me to fashion you a vehicle out of twigs and stones?" She patted herself down, "Sorry I left those tools in my other bra, too."

"Someone's testy."

"I have a headache."

"I don't suppose the bra you're wearing is the one with the phone in it?"

"As it happens, it's not, because the phone is in my pocket. I lifted it from one of the guards." He rolled his eyes and she reached into her pocket and pulled out the iPhone and something small and pink. She pressed the pink thing to the phone and grinned.

"Is that a thumb?" Ranger asked.

"Phone unlocks with a fingerprint scan."

"Stephanie would have hurled if I had done that," he commented mildly.

"Then it's a good thing I did it and that you aren't Stephanie," she returned absently as she opened the Maps app. "We're about an hour outside of Boston." She took a screenshot of the map that showed their position, snapped a couple of pictures of the house and then changed the settings on the phone so she didn't have to cart the thumb around with her. She handed the digit to Ranger who promptly tossed it into the woods.

"Let's go boost a car." He suggested.

"I feel like I'm 12 again…"

They found a Lincoln Navigator in the driveway with the doors unlocked, "Fortune smiles!" She said and Ranger grinned, unlocked the door and tossed her into the SUV. A few seconds later he got the car started. They made sure they were well clear of the house and without a tail before they called Tank. The call was brief. They didn't want to keep the phone for too long. As soon as Tank called back with the information they needed Meagan opened the window.

"Shame. I like the phone. Remind me, I want to buy myself one when we get back." and with that she tossed the phone out onto the interstate where is shattered.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Lester and Joe were going over every detail in the video footage from the Starbucks. Julio was in Boston using his tech guys there to pull up every possible lead on Beals they could find that we might have missed here. I was doing what I could from my end, which consisted of going through open cases and looking for anyone recent who might have a score to settle and coordinating my information with the boys in Boston. Miami, New York and Atlanta were doing the same (We were running everything through Julio because he ran the three out of the other four offices, he knew what men to put where). Lula and Bobby were at the truck looking for evidence and Tank was staring at the phone in my cubicle, willing it to ring with a lead, a tip, anything. When it did ring, he hit the speaker phone button so hard I was concerned that the phone was going to go through my desk.

"Talk."

"Have Hector trace this call for our location." Ranger barked. Tank motioned for one of the men to get Hector, Lester and Joe. I wanted to say something but my heart was in my throat and I couldn't speak. If Tank was surprised to hear Ranger's voice, he didn't show it. "Tink is going to read off a VIN, I want the GPS disabled from the truck we are in and I want a clean-up team to meet us at whatever RV point they think will be safe. We're going to ditch our wheels there. Let us know where we are going. I want security on Stephanie doubled; Lester doesn't leave the building without back up; Morelli doesn't leave the building period and I want Burrows and Gilman brought in and put in the safe house in the basement. Once everyone is inside I want the building on lockdown. Get me Hector."

"Here, Hermano. Are you alright?" He asked and squeezed my shoulder. All three men plus Tank were now crowded into my cube.

"We're fine," he said curtly. "I want all key fobs reprogrammed and ours disabled."

"Already done. We have video of you getting grabbed, Hermano."

"I want it processed and every detail pulled from it," Meagan said. Her voice didn't sound right. Lester tensed and looked at Tank. He nodded to Lester, telepathic message received. "Are you at one of your computers?"

"We're in Stephanie's cubicle. I've made it so she has access to everything I do." That was news to me, "What do you need?"

"Pull everything from this phone: Pictures, emails, video, text messages. Everything." Tank grabbed the back of my chair and wheeled me out of Hector's way. I watched as Hector took my place and his fingers began to fly over the keys. Pictures started popping up on the screen and then disappeared to wherever he sent them at high speeds.

"There is security footage from your location; he could access it from the phone." Hector said.

"Follow protocol," Meagan said. "Tank, contact Frakes, let him know about the video and tell him that Ranger and I are going to need access to our service records in their entirety."

"I've got everything I can get from the phone," Hector said.

"Good. Make the calls." Ranger said.

"Julio is in Boston." Tank replied.

"Tell him Tink needs shoes." Ranger disconnected.

"What the fuck is going on? And why doesn't Meagan have shoes?" I demanded.

"She didn't have them in the coffee shop either; she probably took them off in the truck." Lester squeezed my hand. "The important thing right now is that they are alive and safe. We'll worry about details when they get back" He turned to Tank, "You heard it?"

"Go do what you need to do. Morelli, help him. You will need Ella's help." Lester and Joe left the cube and Tank picked up the phone and dialled Rangeman Boston, "Get me Santos."

"Yo."

"Ranger and Tink are on their way to you." He relayed the orders and Julio was silent for a couple of beats.

"How bad?"

"Disarm them immediately."

"She been sleeping?"

"No idea. Your brother is prepping. I'd be happier if we could put more than a floor between them."

"Lock down, Tank. That was the order." The command in Julio's voice was unmistakable and Tank reacted the way he would have if Ranger had given the order.

"Yes, Sir."

"I'm going to go to the scene after I get them on the chopper. I imagine that Lester and Mrs. Ranger would rather have them locked up in your building than locked down here."

"Lester is already prepping."

"I'll be there tomorrow." He disconnected and Tank and I shared a moment of mutual relief before he went back into command mode and started issuing orders again.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

"Hey, Baby, how was your night?" Lester asked as he casually draped an arm around Meagan's shoulders when she and Ranger came into the office a few hours later.

"You know - same old same old - got kidnapped, escaped with just a bit of death and dismemberment. You?" She quipped with a flat smile that didn't reach her eyes. Like her voice on the phone, it was just wrong.

Before they arrived we received word their ride was two minutes out so we had congregated in the Control Room to wait for them. Tank didn't want any of us outside and exposed in any way until Ranger gave orders otherwise. That included the roof.

As soon as I saw Ranger I ran to him and hugged him. He held me tight while burying his face in my curls briefly before he stiffened and stepped out of the hug.

"Conference room two is clear," Hector said and we all trooped in. Meagan sat down at the table and was immediately flanked by Les and Bobby. Ranger sat as far away from her as he could get with Hector and I on either side of them.

"Report," Ranger ordered.

"The kids working at the coffee shop are alive and expected to make full recoveries. One of them is going to need rehab to walk again. We're already covering medical expenses for both of them; you want lost wages, too?" Tank answered.

"They are going to need more than that," Meagan said, "Double it and let me know about outstanding student loans. I'll be paying them off. Next."

"Security footage from both the Starbucks and the house are being scrubbed," Hector said. "Clean up crews went to the house and Julio says it's a ghost town. Not even bodies left lying around. They are going through computers as we speak but it looks like they've been wiped. Property belongs to Beals…" he was interrupted by a knock on the door and both Meagan and Ranger reached for non-existent weapons. Lester and Bobby each put a calming hand on Meagan. Hector did the same to Ranger and I followed suit. I was getting really freaked out by them. I'd never actually seen Ranger immediately after he had been in the wind. He usually decompressed at his house before coming back to Trenton and to me. I didn't like seeing him on edge like this and wanted to do something to help. I went to hold his hand and he shook his head slightly in the negative.

"Come." Tank barked and Zero walked in. "General Vadrine called." Vadrine and Frakes had been Meagan's handlers for almost all of her career and they were extremely protective of her, not only as an asset but because they genuinely liked her. "He can't give you access to your full records. He's watched the footage Hector sent him. He wants the Boss Lady to call as soon as she's decompressed to go over what you are looking for."

"Thank you Zero." Bobby said, "Call him back and tell him 24 hours starting from 0700 tomorrow."

"Yes, Sir." He walked out of the room.

"Want to tell us what happened in there?" Tank asked.

"No. Watch the video." Ranger stood and took my hand and pulled me to my feet. It wasn't a gentle tug but it didn't hurt either. As soon as I was on my feet, he dropped my hand.

We stepped out of the conference room and went to the elevator. Ranger looked at me.

"Right, you don't have keys anymore," I said then pulled my keys out of my pocket and tapped it to the control panel. He hit 7. He wouldn't look at me or touch me and I was getting nervous. I didn't think I had done anything wrong and, as far as I knew, I couldn't remember a time Ranger had ever been angry with me. Not even after I had stunned him in the ass and dumped him in the emergency room in Hawaii. Sure he'd wanted to talk afterward but he wasn't pissed. Mostly I think he was impressed that I incapacitated him.

Just like Meagan hadn't been right there was something not right about Ranger. I guess it is understandable given what had happened; but I didn't know what to do. I reached for him and he stepped away. "Wait," he said. It wasn't a "no" so I took heart from it. He wasn't rejecting me.

The doors opened to seven and I let us into the apartment. The door slammed behind me and Ranger pushed me up against the wall. He knee was between my legs and his hand pinned my hands above my head. His free hand was lightly gripping my throat. My pulse rocketed up to near stroke level in a combination of fear and arousal. "If you want me to stop, tell me and then leave. Go to four and stay there until Bobby or Tank comes to get you," he growled. "I won't be able to stop myself if I get started so be sure of what you want Stephanie."

My eyes went wide at the thought of an out of control Ranger; he closed his eyes and turned his head away. "If you're scared of me, leave now," he said, his teeth clenched as he fought to hang onto his self control. I could see the struggle on his face and that little bit of fear evaporated. He might be aggressive, almost out of control and maybe even a little feral; but this was Ranger. He would never hurt me. I've never backed away from him before and I wasn't about to do so now. He needed me and just like he was always there for me, I needed to be there for him. I put my hand on his cheek and turned his head so he was facing me again. He opened his eyes; his stare was penetrating and I met it without blinking.

"Kiss me."

RSRSRSRSRSRS

_AN: Lemon? No Lemon? I'm on the fence. _

_Oh and not to be a total attention whore but ummm tomorrow is my birthday! A review would make a wonderful present!_


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Sorry for the wait! My kids decided that they each wanted to give me different cold and I've been gross and pathetic for a week now. In this chapter we get to meet Lester's brother and there is what I'm gonna call smut lite because I just couldn't ****really get my mojo going while hopped up on cold meds. Please enjoy. Thanks to Di for making my NyQuil induced ramblings into something readable. **

_"__If you're scared of me, leave now," he said, his teeth clenched as he fought to hang onto his self control. I could see the struggle on his face and that little bit of fear evaporated. He might be aggressive, almost out of control and maybe even a little feral; but this was Ranger. He would never hurt me. I've never backed away from him before and I wasn't about to do so now. He needed me and just like he was always there for me, I needed to be there for him. I put my hand on his cheek and turned his head so he was facing me again. He opened his eyes; his stare was penetrating and I met it without blinking._

_"__Kiss me."_

One day, just after I married Ranger, I was sitting in the truck listening to Bill Engval on satellite radio. He was talking about sex in the movies. He was talking about hot, angry sex, where clothes get torn off in the heat of passion and he said, "Sex ain't like that in real life, because unless there is already a hole in them those panties ain't ripping and then all you're doing is yankin' on their underwear." I remember laughing myself sick over that.

What he forgot to mention was that with certain men it is exactly like it is in the movies. One touch from Ranger and my panties practically tore themselves off. What should have been worrying me at that point was fuck the panties because while he was kissing me senseless I somehow lost my actual pants! I remember feeling the tug and hearing the tear of my underwear disappearing but I was sure I had been wearing pants before that. I say 'should have' because at the time I was too preoccupied by my t-shirt being yanked over my head and wondering why he didn't just make it disappear like my pants.

I didn't have time to contemplate that long as he was lifting me up off the floor and pressing me further into the wall. I was grateful for how much time he spent in the gym since he did it like I weighed nothing and I'm not exactly dainty. I wound my legs around him and tugged impatiently at his shirt while he used his teeth to pull the cup of my bra out of his way so he could take a nipple in his teeth. This completely short circuited my fine motor skills which made taking his shirt off now a job as difficult as painting the Mona Lisa on the side of a moving train, with a paint roller. I was mostly naked and he had everything on and that just wasn't working for me. I growled in frustration and felt him smile against my skin.

"Hang on," h e said and carried me to the bedroom where he dropped me back on the bed and peeled off his shirt. God I loved him shirtless like that. I bit my lip as I took him in; all perfect and sculpted. It never got old. My moan of appreciation brought another smile to his lips and suddenly I had my Ranger back. It was like a switch had turned off and the scary was gone.

I sat up and began working his belt buckle. As soon as I got it undone, I pushed his pants down his hips and he shucked them off. He gently lowered me back onto the bed and began gently kissing everything he'd caressed roughly in the front hall as if he was trying to kiss hurts better, hurts that didn't exist. It was like he was trying to make amends for something he did wrong and I wanted to stop him. To tell him that I was okay; but I was selfish. I liked how he was making up to me. The feather light kisses against my skin were giving me goose bumps and the gentle caress of his hands felt like they were everywhere leaving a path of fire in their wake. When he finally made it back to my lips, his kiss was full of need but I could feel him trying to hold back.

"Don't" I whispered as I stared into his eyes. "I want it all, Batman. I need you to lose control." His eyes flashed again, his kiss was fierce and I saw stars as he hitched my leg further up his hip and he drove inside me. His whole body stilled and every muscle tensed under my touch so I looked up at his face to see if everything was all right.

"You're beautiful," he said and began to move at an agonizingly slow pace. Our eyes were locked onto each other and what he was doing was slow, delicious torture. I could tell it wasn't about me. He wasn't holding back, he was savoring, big difference. Holding back for my sake would have just frustrated me. This made my eyes roll back in my head and made me feel every gloriously slow, deep thrust. I barely noticed that the pace was increasing. I was just one giant nerve ending being strummed for pleasure and I felt myself tensing, knowing that it was only going to get better. Ranger's arms were beginning to shake as I clung to him, unable to control my own body anymore, as he wrung every ounce of pleasure out of me before I cried out as wave after wave of release flooded my body. I thought I was going to drown in sensation. Ranger bit down gently on my shoulder as he followed me into oblivion and collapsed on top of me shuddering with his own climax.

He recovered just enough to roll onto his back bringing me with him so that I was sprawled bonelessly over top of him. I was listening to his heart pounding in his chest and was lulled into a trance by the rise and fall of his chest as our breathing slowed.

"I'm sorry." he said.

"For what?"

"Scaring you. I shouldn't have…"

"What, given me new fantasy material?" I teased, "Because it was very hot, Batman. I'm not going to be able to walk into this apartment without thinking about how I'd like to get ravished against the wall by the front door," He chuckled softly and idly tangled his hands in my hair. I both loved and hated when he did this. I loved it because it was mutually relaxing. I hated it because when he played with my hair, it was always very scary the next morning. At the moment though I couldn't have cared less about bad hair, "You don't scare me, Ranger. You wouldn't hurt me; it's not in your nature." His hand had left my hair and he was now tracing lazy circles up and down my spine causing me to practically purr with contentment, "Do you want to talk about what happened tonight?" I almost asked, but what I really said was, "Do you waaaaannnnaatakbooutwhathaaapnnight?" Because I yawned half way through the sentence and my mouth refused to stop speaking the sentence I'd already started.

He laughed. "Want to run that by me again, Babe?"

"Do you want to talk about what happened tonight?"

"It was like when we were first partners and we would go out without Tank. It was easy to just slip into the old roles. We were bickering about her boots when I saw the headlights out of the corner of my eye and hauled her out of the way. I remember reaching for each other's guns because it was quicker than going for our own and we both knew it. I always know exactly what she's going to do when we are in a tight spot because we think so much alike. I remember thinking that I had missed that." He was quiet for a few minutes, "I remember seeing the two kids behind the counter get shot and killing one of the men doing the shooting. After that I don't remember much until we woke up."

"Getting your brain scrambled with electricity will do that."

"Yeah. Then I woke up and was hanging from the ceiling by my wrists." He told me about the rest of the escape, but he was glossing over bits that he knew I wouldn't like to hear. When he was finished speaking, I straddled him and kissed him deeply.

"I know you don't like what you had to do tonight and, call me selfish, but I'm happy you did because it means you're home. I can't lose you, Carlos Manoso." He caressed the back of my neck and pulled me back down for another slow, deep kiss before he rolled me back under him.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

"Do what you need to do." That's what Tank said. That meant making sure all of their weapons were locked in the safe, the apartments were set up for maximum comfort and to have first aid kits ready. Lester had Ella bring tweezers and magnifying glasses from the infirmary and added them to the kits. There had been a lot of glass at the scene and Meagan hadn't been wearing shoes, but bitching about glass in her feet is not something she would do when there were more important things to worry about.

While Joe searched for weapons stashed for convenience around the apartments, Ella and Lester took care of the random details such as placing large brown paper evidence bags in each of the bathrooms to put their clothes in, turning on the heated floors in each bathroom, and making sure the towels were on the warmers. They also ensured there was ready-to-eat food in the fridge, if necessary. It didn't take long and then time seemed to crawl as they waited for Meagan and Ranger to get back.

It was all Lester could do not to drag her into his arms and up to their apartment the second he saw her. She was deep in her head and she was limping. There was something else he couldn't put his finger on either and it kept niggling at the back of his mind. She hadn't been violated sexually. Ric would have known and she would be at the hospital. Something was really bothering her though. It was like she wasn't there. As soon as he was sure that the Manosos were safely on seven, he walked her to the stairs. He disabled the cameras in the stair well and immediately picked her up so she wasn't walking on her poor tortured feet anymore.

He was hoping that it was the pain that kept her from opening up to him. He carried her straight to the bathroom and sat her down on the counter. He untied the simple white sneakers she was wearing. Her socks were sticky with blood and Lord knows what else. He carefully pulled them off of her feet trying hard not to feel like a bastard when she winced. He carefully placed the socks and shoes in the paper evidence bag. Next he pulled off her t-shirt and bra and put them in the bag. Unable to resist, he placed a kiss on her collar bone and it elicited a small smile. He unbuckled her belt and she lifted her hips so he could drag her pants and underwear down her shapely legs leaving her naked and still sitting on the counter. He gently swung her legs around and placed her feet in the sink full of cool water. "Don't move," he said and carried the bag out to the hallway where Bobby was waiting to take it down to their lab for processing.

He went to the bathroom again and his heart broke at how listless she was. It was too soon for her to be in a situation like this. Not after everything she had just been through. He walked to the tub and turned it on then went to her and pulled one of her feet out of the sink. The water was tinged pink with her blood and he felt for her. He painstakingly removed all of the tiny slivers of glass that were embedded in each of her feet and cleaned what dirt he could out of the tiny lacerations. He was on her second foot when she finally spoke.

"I should feel bad about what I did tonight Les but I don't." She told him everything she remembered. He carefully finished cleaning up her feet as he listened intently to what she had to say. She hugged her knees to her chest while she spoke, her tone flat, her eyes distant.

"You shouldn't feel bad about what you did, Meagan. You did what you needed to do. You know what Beals is like; you know what he would have done to you if you hadn't done exactly what you did. I wouldn't even really blame you if you had enjoyed it a little."

"That's just it Lester, I didn't feel _anything_. I felt detached, almost like I wasn't there. I was locked in a small, dimly lit, windowless room and I wasn't the least bit anxious. Elevators make me nervous now. I should have been trying not to freak out and instead I just didn't care. I mean I cut off a man's thumb tonight so I could unlock his phone. I should be feeling sick about it now but there's nothing." She shivered and he remembered that she was naked and sitting on a cold marble counter top.

He picked her up and set her down on the edge of the hot bath. Meagan swung her legs around and hissed at the initial sting of the hot water hitting the cuts on her feet then she sank herself into the hot water sighing as it began softening the tense muscles in her neck and her weirdly stiff shoulders. She smiled as she heard the soft thump of Lester's pants hitting the floor and she sat forward in the bath so he could slide in behind her. She waited until he was settled before she spoke again. "I'm afraid of what I'm turning into if I don't feel anything about killing people anymore."

"Meagan, it's not in your nature to panic. You're exhausted and were shot by a taser tonight; you've just locked it all away until you are capable of dealing with what happened. Right now you just need to sleep so you can process it all." She nodded and nestled into his embrace. In minutes her breathing was deep and even and she was asleep. He laughed ruefully; this was not how he was expecting this evening to turn out if he was honest. He was pretty damn sure she was going to be all over him. She usually was. He used his toes to pull the plug in the bathtub and then adjusted her weight so he could carry her out of the tub. He awkwardly dried them both as best he could without having to set her down and then carried her to their bed. He was glad Ella had thought to turn down the sheets and he put her down and drew the fluffy duvet up over Meagan's sleeping form. He finished drying himself properly and slipped into bed beside her.

She was immediately drawn to his heat and draped herself over him. He grinned when he felt her tracing her nails over his abs. Meagan loved cut abs. Lester had become almost obsessive about making sure his were perfect because they were one of her biggest turn ons. For him? He loved the little secret rebellions she had. The small tattoo on her pelvis just to the right of where her hairline would be if she wasn't always waxed was his favorite. It was just a tiny little thing that only he, Ranger (because he'd been a part of that drunken fiasco that had resulted in the three of them getting inked), the tattoo artist and the small Korean woman who did her bikini wax knew about.

He smiled thinking about the tattoo. The stud in her naval was also quite hot and he was glad she had it redone. As he was contemplating these things, her hand slipped well below the blankets and his smile ratcheted up a few notches. He grabbed her wrist to stop her inquisitive hand from exploring much further and rolled her onto her back. She smiled lazily up at him with a hand on the thigh opposite him; he leaned down and placed a soft probing kiss on her lips. "I felt that," she purred when he released her lips. Without saying a word he kissed, nipped, licked and teased his way down her body on a quest to inspect the tattoo that never failed to make him feel just a little bit smug. He finally reached his destination and nipped gently at the ink and he felt the vibration of the silent laugh at his preoccupation. The laugh turned into a shiver of desire as he placed a hot open-mouthed kiss so close to the promise land.

'I'm becoming obsessed with this thing." he said as he kissed it again. Just two little cursive letters she'd put there for his birthday the year after they had moved in together. L.S.

"You should get more ink," he said as he kissed his way across her pelvis, "Here," he kissed the side opposite the tattoo.

"What should I get?" She breathed.

"Mrs. Santos." He said and then went to work with his incredibly talented tongue that made her forget about forming a coherent response.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

Lester woke up at noon and grinned down at his wife. She was still sprawled over top of him and looked like she wasn't going to move anytime soon. He gently extracted himself from her and went to the bathroom to take a shower. When he came out fifteen minutes later and crossed to the closet to get dressed she was still in the exact position she had been in when he'd left. Lips twitching he tucked her back under the blankets and went to their living room to watch the news to see if they had successfully kept the kidnapping away from the media. The official story was that a van lost control and crashed into the side of the coffee house. Things would get infinitely dicier if it got out that right now Ranger and the Pixie were vulnerable.

His phone rang in his pocket and he frowned. Offline meant no communications except for emergencies. He checked the readout and saw TPD. "Yo."

"It's Eddie."

"S'up?"

"We've got another body. If she's up to it, her boss, wants her to make an appearance at the scene. Can you come out?"

"She's not even awake, man. I'll see what I can do but she was up for 22 hours and they weren't exactly what you'd call restful."

"I know. Just do what you can." Lester disconnected and went into the bedroom and sat on the bed. Meagan didn't get a lot of deep restful sleep like this and he really hated waking her up especially after what she had just been through. He stroked her gorgeous hair off her face and placed a soft kiss on her slightly parted lips. She didn't even twitch and he shook his head. "So much for Sleeping Beauty," he said softly and gently shook her shoulder, "Come on, Gorgeous, wake up. We've got another body." Still nothing so he shook her harder and her head simply lolled to the other side, "Aww fuck." He shook her even harder and still got no response, "Fuck, Baby, I'm an idiot," he punched speed dial two on his phone.

If it had been any other pair than Meagan and Ranger, they would have known last night there was something wrong. Ric's eyes were dark enough that when he was pissed they were almost black and Meagan's were actually black. So unless you were staring them in the eyes, under a bright light you wouldn't see it. The lack effect? Not feeling anxious about anything including a genuine phobia, falling asleep in the tub. The signs were all there. "I'm sorry Meagan. You tried to tell me something was wrong. I'm an idiot."

"Yo." Bobby sounded half asleep as he finally answered his phone.

"B get up here! She's non-responsive. I'm pretty sure they were drugged."

"Shit." Bobby disconnected and within two minutes Ranger and Bobby were in the room.

"Tell me exactly what happened after you got up here last night." Bobby demanded as he started checking Meagan's vitals.

"She was in her head. I cleaned up her feet and she told me that she was worried about the fact that she didn't feel anything. She was afraid of what it meant that she no longer felt remorse when she killed. I told her that she was exhausted and she was compartmentalizing until she was ready to deal with it. We had a bath and she dozed off in the tub. I took her to bed, she woke up and…"

"I don't need specific details unless there was something unusual about her behavior?"

"Maybe?" He frowned, "She was just as responsive as she usually is, just not as active; but she had a long day yesterday and I figured she was just genuinely exhausted." He looked at Ranger, "What about when she woke up in the cell?"

"She had a headache and fell asleep in the car on the way to Boston."

"What about in the chopper back here?"

"She slept all the way back, too."

"Anything else. Anything at all?" Bobby asked. Ranger quickly relayed what he could remember.

"She was cold." Ranger said, "But she's always cold."

"Is she naked under this blanket, Les?"

"Yep."

"Well, it will make things easier if she doesn't kill us for looking" he reasoned with himself and then looked at Ranger, "Listen, Meagan has naturally low blood pressure and this wouldn't be the first time we haven't been able to wake her up after she run herself into the ground. That being said, it sounds like a benzodiazepine so we're looking for needle marks. It can be injected in the muscle or vein." They flipped the sheet covering her hips until it just barely covered her business.

Within seconds Lester found it (which was not surprising given how good his eyesight was and that he knew her body better than anyone else) There was a needle mark on the inside of her left elbow. Bobby pulled a camera out of his bag and, careful only to have the elbow in the frame, he took a picture of the needle mark. He put the camera back in his bag. He started an IV, took a blood sample and then hooked her up to some saline.

"She's dehydrated but she's stable. I'm going to continue monitoring her but I don't see any point in moving her until we know if we have to." He snapped off his glove and pulled another pair out of his bag, "Ric, shirt off please."

"I'm fine Bobby."

"Not a question, Ranger. You were electrocuted, probably drugged and hung from a ceiling for who knows how long. I'm not willing to just take your word for it. So take off your shirt."

While Bobby was examining Ranger, Lester was looking over Meagan and he discovered a small bruise on her upper right thigh. "I think they dosed her twice. I think I've found another injection site," he said. "There's bruising around it."

"She probably woke up. Meagan is really easy to under-medicate," Bobby said as he looked at Ranger. "I want Julio to look at your shoulders when he gets here." He handed Ranger back his shirt.

"They're fine. Just stiff." Ranger replied. He pulled his shirt back on.

"Again, it wasn't really a request, Boss."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

When Ranger woke me up to tell me he was going to a crime scene, with Tank, I figured that if he was going to work I might as well drag my ass out of bed to work too, which is how I found myself sitting in Ranger's office staring at surveillance footage from the house in Boston. I was on my third go through of the footage when there was a knock on the door and it opened before I could tell whoever it was to come in. I looked up and decided that Rosa Manoso really knew what she was doing when she combined her genes with her husband's, because Lester's brother was just as drop dead gorgeous as Ranger and Lester.

Besides the word 'delicious', the best way to describe Julio Santos would be to say he was a good mix of Lester and Ranger, a little taller than Ranger but shorter than Les and lighter skinned than both of them; but like both of his relatives, it was a combination of a killer smile and incredible eyes that sucked you in. Lester's eyes were a startling almost hypnotic green, Ranger's a piercing deep dark chocolate that seemed to see right into you soul, Julio's were like two pools of molten bronze constrained by a dark brown ring and they put you instantly at ease. Although I suspect that he was like Ranger and Lester and you probably didn't want on his bad side.

"Well if it isn't Mrs. Ranger," he said. "I'm Julio Santos." He held out his hand and I shook it, "We haven't really had a chance to meet yet."

"You were at the hospital for Meagan and you were at the reception but you disappeared pretty quickly so we didn't actually get a chance to talk."

"There was press there and my charming ex-wife showed up and was going to cause a scene. Figured it would be easier if I just got her out of there."

"How did she get past the security?" I asked.

"She didn't but it wouldn't have stopped her from doing her damnedest to ruin the night. She doesn't like me much and knows that Lester and Meagan are my Achilles heel. She'd have no qualms about hurting them to hurt me but it's no fun for her if I'm not there watching her be a complete bitch."

"What did you do to her?"

"We're prone to be workaholics in our family and I'm a surgeon." He shrugged, "The idea of being married to a doctor was way more appealing than the reality of being married to a trauma surgeon. I was never home and she felt neglected. I forgot my cell phone at the hospital one day and they called the house while I was on my way home. She set up a little surprise for me to get my attention and I didn't react the way she wanted."

"What was the surprise?"

"She was participating in a video chat on a porn site. She wanted to get caught and for me to be jealous."

"Wow. I'm almost afraid to ask…"

"I had just spent 8 hours trying to put an 8-year-old back together who had been hit by his school bus and it was still touch and go. I was exhausted, I needed a drink and I wanted to sleep. I wasn't in the mood for games. So instead of getting upset like I knew she wanted, I let her have the truth. I'm open-minded about sex. Those sex chat sites are basically just phone sex with visual aids. As long as she was safe about it, I wasn't really concerned what type of porn she used to help get herself off."

"And she took exhausted and open-mindedness for not caring."

"Oh yeah. She left me that night," he said, "You know how your divorce is part of New Jersey lore? Mine was the Miami version." I shuddered. My divorce had been nasty and, while I was happy to be rid of the cheating bastard, I definitely got the fuzzy end of that lollipop.

"Why did you start working for Rangeman?"

"I had no intention of ever doing that but then Meagan died just after they opened the business. Lester was an absolute mess, Ric and Hector weren't much better and…I… I was shattered. I needed to be around people who knew her and I needed to try to keep my little brother together."

"Are you going to leave now that she's not dead?"

"Nope. They'd fall apart without me." He grinned and winked at me, "Actually, I find that I have an aptitude for running the different branches and I still have hospital privileges in New York. My mind is like active. I need to keep it busy or I get myself into trouble."

"You are way chattier than Ranger and Lester," I teased.

"You're family. Besides, to get Lester to open up just apply tequila and hide Meagan. He gets very chatty if she's not there to distract him. Although Lester, Meagan, Ranger and tequila together usually add up to extremely questionable choices and one hell of a party."

I picked up my pen and wrote _Lester + worm = Dirt on Ranger._ Julio threw back his head and laughed, "So what are you working on, Mrs. Ranger?"

"Trying to figure this out; something is just really weird about it." The video of their capture and captivity was playing on the screen, "It doesn't fit anything else we think he's done so far. It's too messy. I'm really hoping you are going to tell me that there is a smoking gun at the house."

"Nope. Not a damn thing. The place was completely scrubbed. There was evidence that the family had been there recently; but there were literally no fingerprints in the basement, no DNA, nothing to say that Meagan and Ric were in the basement but their word."

"And the stuff Hec pulled off of the phone?"

"Yeah, the way he did that could get thrown out of court by a shrewd lawyer. It's their word against his and since they were drugged…"

"We need more," I said and he nodded. There was a knock on the door and Julio leaned back and opened it, Jimmy was there.

"Jimmy! How are you liking Jersey?" He asked.

"Jimmy is already in love with the Boss Lady," I teased and he blushed. Julio laughed.

"Ahhh, Jimmy, you aren't the first and won't be the last to be ensnared by her. She collects men." He turned that molten gaze on me and chuckled, "You do, too, I bet. How many of the men in this building are in love with you, Mrs. Ranger?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said and innocently batted my eyes at him. He didn't buy it and I smiled, "What can I do for you, Jimmy?"

"The labs are back on Tink and Ranger," he said.

Julio flipped open the folder, "Jesus," he muttered, "I'm surprised she's been awake at all. We're lucky she's not in a coma. They gave her the same dose of Ativan as they gave Ranger. May I use the computer?" He started typing and accessed a program I didn't know we had, pulled up Meagan's chart and read it through. He got a text and pulled out his phone, "She's awake and bitchy. I think at the moment we'll leave her with Les and Bobby. They'll chill her out."

"Actually, Joe's in there. He's baby sitting because Lester went to the crime scene with Ranger."

"Oh, they came back about ten minutes ago. They are all up there," Jimmy said. Raised voices were coming from the control room. Julio tilted his chair back again and his whole demeanor changed.

"Well, hello. Who do we have here?" He righted his chair with a thump and stood up to go investigate.

RSRSRSRSRRSRSRSRS

It was the pressing need to pee that woke her up. She groaned and flatly refused to open her eyes. She still had the bitch of a headache and she felt like she could use a few more hours of sleep. She went to sit up and felt a tug in her hand and she realized she was hooked up to an IV, "Dammit, Bobby," she muttered and unclipped the tubing. She had to pee and then she really needed to brush her teeth; they were so fuzzy it felt like she had a stuffed toy factory in her mouth. She spun her legs around and started to stand and then promptly sat down again.

"Take it easy, Princess. You were drugged. You're going to be a little disoriented," Joe said and she suddenly remembered what she had gone to sleep in. She was in no way ashamed of her body, or at all shy, but she still didn't want to just walk around naked in front of man that wasn't her husband. She relaxed a bit as it finally registered that she was wearing silk pajamas and was actually dressed.

"Where's Les?" Joe opened his mouth to speak and she held out her hand and peeled opened an eye, it was just him in the room, "Wait. Just let me pee. Whatever you have to say can wait a few minutes."

She stood up and stumbled to the bathroom, wincing slightly because her feet were still tender. She quickly took care of urgent business, brushed her teeth and then gave herself an appraising look. "Ohh, aren't I a treat?" She looked longingly at the shower. Her hair was spectacular and she'd slept in her makeup having not washed it off in the tub. She opened a drawer and began the ritual of washing her face- cleanser, toner, serum, lotion, eye cream, and skipped the sun block because she seriously doubted that Bobby would let her out of the apartment today anyway. She brushed out the rat's nest her hair had become after sleeping on it wet then threw it into a loose braid. She gave herself another look in the mirror, grinned at her pajamas, which were pale pink silk with black piping and the top belted closed instead of buttoned. They were new and she hadn't bought them. Lester wouldn't choose this although he'd love it. No, these were the work of Ella.

"She's trying to get me laid again," she chuckled. She knew that if she looked in her dresser she'd find all kinds of new lingerie, all of it would be decadent and very expensive. Ella's subtle way of telling her she needed to go on vacation. They hadn't been to their house for almost a year. A month there would be wonderful. Quiet. Well, until she pulled out Ella's latest purchases. She smirked. She needed to speak to Hector first. Lester's birthday was coming up. If she could find a way to get him to go out of town for a couple of weeks, she could get him his present and get the house ready. She examined herself again, she was very tired and she looked it. A month at their little hideaway was just what the doctor ordered.

She walked out of the bathroom and the smile at her private plotting dropped. She'd been invaded. Now, not only was Joe in the room (she still didn't know why), but so was Lester (he, of course, was always welcome), Bobby (not a shock, given the IV), Ranger and Hector (probably here for the same reason as Morelli) and they were all strewn about her room. Ranger had his arms folded across his chest and he was leaning, propped against the window sill, with a manilla folder under one arm. Lester was on the far left of the giant bed leaning against the headboard, ankles crossed, Bobby was hanging another bag of whatever from the IV stand to the right of the bed. Joe was still sitting in his chair at the foot of the bed, feet propped up and ankles crossed.

They all looked at her when she walked in. Lester, Bobby and Joe did an involuntary full body scan of her. Yep the pajamas were well appreciated. She'd have to tell Ella. Hector smirked since he'd lived with her long enough to know Ella's gentle manipulations when he saw them. Ranger looked like he was thinking about smiling. She stood there letting them take in the look so they could get it out of their systems.

"S'up?" She asked and the three gawking idiots snapped out of their trances.

Bobby motioned for her to get back into bed. She did as ordered and slid in close to her husband as Bobby went about reattaching her to the IV. "So you were dosed with something, labs should be back soon," Bobby said as he sat on the edge of the bed and started checking her vitals again.

"Feels like a benny of some kind. At least that's what the headache feels like."

"It's what Julio and I think. How much of the initial kidnapping do you remember?"

"Not much after Ranger tossed me and the two kids went down; then it's one big blur until we woke up in the cell."

"I'm really leaning towards Ativan for this. Memory loss, headache, fatigue, chills, explains the lack of anxiety."

"Sure does. Idiot actually made me more efficient because he took away the anxiety I would have been feeling being in an enclosed space." She looked at Ranger, "What's in the folder?"

"New victim," he said, "Kimberly Long. She's a federal prosecutor with an impressive record."

"Body was found in the building laundry room by the janitor this morning. Apartment is the worst we've seen yet. The beating was the most savage and she wasn't just raped; she was mutilated ante mortem," Lester said.

"He's escalating. He was pissed we got away last night."

"So I'm thinking he has a list." Lester said, "This is the first time he's killed two victims in less than a week and both of them were impulsive; but they can't just victims of opportunity. His victimology isn't just about body type and hair color, it's about personality and employment as well; not to mention all of them live in walk-up apartments with onsite basement laundry rooms. We have 12 victims across 2 states and it's always the same story - not a coincidence."

"You're probably right," she said. Bobby was fiddling with something in a box beside her while she flipped through the file. He held out a hand for her arm so she lifted up her right arm and he grasped her wrist, "Do we have time of YEOUCH! Dammit, Bobby, what the fuck was that?"

"Your new tracker, Gorgeous."

"God, warn a girl!" She shook her head as he pressed some gauze over the injection site. Hector opened his laptop and placed it on Meagan's dresser then pressed a few keys.

"_You_'_re up and running,_" Hector said in Spanish.

"As I was saying," she glared at Bobby, "Do we have a time of death?"

"Between 3 and 4 this morning," Lester answered.

"There's something funky about all of this. Where's Steph?"

"Downstairs obsessively watching the security footage of our escape because she has the same funky feeling as you and Morelli do," Ranger replied.

"How much is on camera?"

"All of it," Ranger said.

"What do you mean all of it?"

"From minute we entered The Coffee shop until we left the house. There is a couple hour gap where they were transporting us but that's it. The rest is on video."

"Have you watched it?"

"Not yet."

"I feel like we should get popcorn," Bobby said.

"For sure popcorn," Lester agreed. "I'll call Ella."

"Actually, I'm starving," Meagan said as she nudged Lester. "Request fully loaded nachos too, please."

_AN: I'm no longer at deaths door thanks to antibiotics. Hopefully I get you a couple of chapters for next week. I love your reviews so let me know what you think. All my medical knowledge comes from the internet and a little poetic licence so if it's horribly wrong, roll __with__ it... or even better PM me to let me know how I can make it better and I'll fix it. _


	7. Chapter 7

_**AN: I am sorry for being gone for so long! Between **__**getting sick, birthdays, Canadian Thanksgiving, and the Apple Update from hell (I am still trying to sort out all my various devices. I THINK I have everything finally working) I just haven't been able to post. I will try to update more, but who knows what's going to happen with my computer this week? Thanks to all of you who have reviewed. And thanks to my Beta Di for reading through the absolutely massive chunk of text I sent her, most of which was written on various cough medications. Thank her for making everything make sense!**_

The commotion, as it turns out, was Ram disarming Jeanne Ellen Burrows in the control room and she was less than happy about it. She was dressed in head-to-toe black leather, her hair was dyed black and she looked fierce… in every sense of the word. "Well I'm assuming your name isn't Julie Newmar, though it would make my day if it was."

I snorted. "I like you," I whispered to Julio.

"Feelings mutual, Babe." I spluttered with laughter. His Ranger was dead on. He winked and turned back to burrows.

"I need to speak to Ranger and they won't let me," she said a touch petulantly. "It's important and about the case we're working on."

"Great." Julio said brightly, he was very chipper. Lester was fun, at times hilariously inappropriate, and usually easy going when he wasn't on the job; but I wouldn't say he was ever chipper. And Ranger? Well I don't think the term 'chipper' and 'Ranger' even belonged on the same planet. So it was a little weird for both Jeanne and I to see someone who looked so much like the both of them be just that. And I got the distinct impression he was doing it on purpose to weird us out, "I'll take you to him but you can't be armed. There was an incident last night and we're on lockdown."

"That's all anyone had to say." She said after Ram let her go.

"Yo, Tank! We're going upstairs. Floor's yours."

"You been here for fifteen minutes, flirted with Bomber and you're shirking your responsibilities already?" Tank called from his office.

"Wouldn't want you to get bored Big Guy. Besides I want to get a look at my girl myself before I really dive into seeing how badly you guys fucked things up around here," he called back and winked at me.

"For that New York gets the next batch or recruits," Tank muttered and Julio chuckled.

"Shall we, ladies." He opened the door, "Babe, Ms. Newmar, after you."

Jeanne Ellen's glare could have melted stone and he acted completely oblivious. "Ranger might kill you for calling me 'Babe'. Just a word of caution."

"He's a lot of fun to bait, but he'd never hurt me; and our grandmother would have his hide if he killed me." And that's when I realized what it was about Julio that was dangerous. He liked fucking with people for sport. Part of me wanted to see him and Tink in action together but I was afraid of what the collateral damage would be like.

We took the stairs to the next floor and Julio let us into the apartment. I was about to question how he had a fob to open the apartment and then I remembered that Bobby's fob let him into any room in Rangeman except for Hector's lair in case of a medical emergency so it stood to reason Julio's would do the same. "Jesus, this place is huge," he muttered.

"It's got the same footprint as seven; it's just taller and lighter so it looks bigger." The colors Ella chose for this place were just as soothing as the ones on seven, but she chose cool colors making the open concept place feel light and airy. The carpet was white and luxurious, the furniture was all oversized and sumptuous. Their large sectional was the darkest piece of furniture in the room, a dove grey, and the most comfortable piece of furniture in the world. It sat 12 regular-sized people or 6 Rangemen and Meagan and felt like you were squishing down into a mountain of pillows. I have never successfully watched a full movie while sitting on it. I always pass out within minutes. The other seating options were a bunch of giant throw pillows she kept in a long trunk under the window. It wasn't unusual to find half of Rangeman watching any major sporting event sprawled out all around her living room on the massive pillows. The sofa often held me, Ranger, Tank, Lester, Bobby and Meagan. Though, on the rare occasions Ella and Luis joined us, Bobby and Lester would commandeer two pillows.

We walked through the courageously white (given the number of men that tracked through) apartment to the bedroom where we found Meagan in the middle of the bed looking over crime scene photos with Bobby who was seated to her right. His legs were stretched out on the bed and his back rested against the wing-backed headboard. To her left Lester was seated in an almost identical pose to Bobby, though he had a laptop opened on his knees and was going through several heavily redacted documents on his computer while making notes in a notebook on the night stand. Joe was in a white club chair with his feet propped up on the bed; he too had crime scene notes on his lap. Ranger was leaning against the window ledge using his phone. The room was quiet except for the rustle of pictures.

"This is a familiar sight with a new face," Julio said by way of greeting.

The atmosphere in the room shifted immediately. Lester tossed his laptop onto the bed and jumped up to hug his older brother hello, Ranger crossed the room to do the same, and Joe got to his feet to introduce himself. Hector hadn't moved, but he looked up from his computer, smirked his greeting at Julio and then went back to whatever he was doing. "Mind if I borrow your seat, Hermanito?" Julio asked as he was dropping onto the bed beside Meagan. He folded Meagan into one of those hugs that you just know is good. The kind that envelop the whole body and are completely warm and soothing. He held her just a second longer than was necessary and then pulled away, "How are you, Amada?"

"Tired, could sleep more, but otherwise fine. Feels like a Benny. Bobby thinks Ativan."

"Bobby's the man." Julio replied, "He's right. They gave you as much as they gave Ric. You're going to probably have some interesting side effects but you'll be fine."

"Great. Rebound insomnia here I come."

"Would I let you suffer, Amada? Honestly," he scoffed and then hugged her again. He released her and got off the bed and leaned against the dresser where Hector was still working. He deliberately jostled the computer earning him a snort of either amusement or irritation from Hector. It was hard to say which. "What are we working on?"

"Latest victim. We're going to watch the video of our escape in a minute." Ranger then acknowledged Jeanne for the first time and all but barked at her when they made eye contact, "I ordered you to report in last night. You better have a damned good reason for showing up more than 12 hours late."

Jeanne looked momentarily nonplussed and then covered it with a sneer. "You first. I came here to report in, was disarmed and now I see Tink in bed surrounded by a guard that the Secret Service would think twice about pissing off. What the fuck is going on?"

"Last night Ranger and Tink were abducted and woke up in Boston. They escaped and came back here," Bobby said.

"What?!" she gasped incredulously, "How the hell did they manage that?"

"Well, Carlos and I are fairly resourceful when we need to be and we were pissed about being kidnapped. Also, not to mention, if a Maximum security Swiss Prison couldn't keep me locked up for more than an hour, I couldn't let an amateur just keep me locked in his basement; it would be terrible for my reputation." Joe snickered at the foot of the bed and we all looked at him in question.

"What? She told me about the Swiss Prison on a stakeout. It was pretty funny."

"I meant, how did they capture you?"

"You'll see." Meagan said simply, "Why are you late? I might be hooked up to an IV but I can still easily kick your ass and I'm somewhat lacking in the patience department today. I'm not interested in you dicking us around because Ranger is in a bit of a mood and you don't like him giving you orders."

"I've had an interesting 24 hours," Jeanne said.

—

24 hours earlier.

Following Terri was about as exciting as watching paint dry, Jeanne decided as she pulled into the lot outside of the Tastey Pastry. Terri's interest in the bakery lay in the coffee there-in. It seemed like it was the day for running errands and although it was somewhat surprising, even Mafia Barbie had to do mundane things like pick up her dry cleaning. She had yet to stop anywhere for more than five minutes time before jogging back to her BMW and moving on to the next stop on her to-do list. It was now finally time to approach her as she was leaning on the side of her car sipping her coffee and checking emails on her phone.

Jeanne got out of the black Jag XJS she was driving and sidled up to the shorter blonde. "We need to talk."

"Figured. You've been following me all day."

"Think I would be driving the Jag if I wanted to be inconspicuous? I'm under orders to follow you. Do you have a minute?"

"Does it have anything to do with why the cheating bastard, Morelli has dropped off of the face of the planet?"

"It does." Jeanne paused, "The feds and Rangeman are working together to track a Human Trafficker who sidelines as a Serial Killer. Morelli was working undercover as the boyfriend of the suspect's daughter. He's been there for months trying to find anything concrete, the suspect is definitely into something shady and Morelli felt like he was onto something when you blew his cover for him and if our Suspect does turn out to be the killer, you are his type and most certainly on his radar now." Terri took the potential threat to her life in stride, not really a stranger to threats given the Family business.

"Since when do you work for the Feds?" she wanted to know.

"I became more open minded about working for the Feds when I found out that Morelli's new partner was the Pixie."

Terri's reaction to this information was amusing to watch; the normally cool blonde took a deep breath and very calmly cursed for a solid minute then heaved her coffee cup into the side of the Tasty Pastry. "That would have been more satisfying if paper shattered." She observed before she collected herself again.

"You have a history?" Burrows asked.

"Not personally. I have never met her, no this is a Family thing." She groused, "Let's just say we owe her a few favors and leave it there. Out of curiosity does Ranger agree with her assessment of the situation?"

"Ranger asked me to come work for him as a favor until this case is over. At first I thought he wanted me to be a decoy for Tink but he just wanted inconspicuous female muscle on you. He trained me because of her and if they're both concerned, so am I."

"Just how fucked am I exactly?"

"You're not. That's why I'm on you. For today at least, I plan to keep my distance, try to pick up any tails you might have. To that end I need to know if you have any additional protection I should know about so I don't waste my time tracking plates I don't need to."

"No tail. I carry a panic button that sends an alert to Uncle Vito's men if I'm in trouble. Response time is about five minutes."

"Good. If something happens, hit the button; I could use the back up. You should continue to go about your business as usual. I just wanted to give you a heads up that I would be watching your back."

"Fine. Am I keeping this information to myself?"

"Yes, for now. We're almost positive we know who this is. The FBI and Rangeman are on it. They'll have answers soon. In the meantime, I'm to make sure you keep to your normal routine and keep you safe. I'll be maintaining a low profile and won't comment on anything I hear during your meetings. Just don't try to duck me and we'll be fine."

"And how much is your silence going to cost me?"

"Nothing. Ranger is paying me well above my usual rate so that I keep my mouth shut."

Terri regarded Jeanne carefully, looking for deception and finding none. "How do you feel about working for him now that he's married to Plum?"

"Ranger and I were over a long time ago, Terri; and the only thing we ever had going for us was phenomenal sex. I could never be what he was looking for and he has all of the emotional availability of a toaster oven. We're colleagues and competitors and nothing more."

"So not even a little jealous of Plum?"

"No reason to be."

"Good, I don't want your focus divided because this is some weird attempt to get back into his bed. Plum is finally out of my way and I have no desire for her to go running back to Morelli again."

Burrows rolled her eyes. The woman she was protecting was pathetic. Honestly pathetic. How many times did she have to be dumped by the guy? Was his dick candy flavored and gold plated? Did he have a tongue like lizard? Unlimited staying power? What was the appeal? Yes, he was good looking and had a nice ass but that was hardly enough to earn this kind of obsession. As far as she could tell Morelli had never treated Terri right and yet she was always coming back for more.

"I'm perfectly aware of how pathetic that sounded," Terri said. "I'll thank you for keeping your opinions to yourself." Jeanne Ellen shrugged and then walked back to her car. She waited for Terri to pull out of the lot and followed at a distance. The woman was busy that was for sure. After a while, Burrows started to suspect that the many errands were cover for other business. She never spent more than ten minutes at each location and with the exception of when she spent 20 minutes inside a lingerie boutique and another 30 in the grocery store, she never brought anything out of the stores she went into. Either she was the world's worst shopper or she was conducting business. It didn't really matter and Jeanne Ellen didn't really care. It wasn't her job to care.

Tomorrow she'd have Terri wear a wire so she could hear what went on inside the buildings but she highly doubted that anything would happen in broad daylight. The women had all been attacked in their homes, at night. When Terri was finished her running around for the day, they were going to have to discuss sleeping arrangements.

Jeanne Ellen was sitting on a park bench under a burnt out street light watching the parking lot of the Bingo Hall that was currently occupied by both Vito and Terri. With all of her uncle's protection inside, Terri would be safe as long as she stayed in the building and Burrows was using the opportunity to recharge. Terri's car was quite a distance away but she'd planted a tracker on it and she could have a better vantage point of the lot from where she was sitting.

At 2202 the door to the Bingo Hall opened and Gillman finally went towards her car. Burrows took the opportunity to send her a quick text telling her that they were tempting fate by being out so late. Terri leaned up against her car and responded that she agreed. She had just unlocked her car when a small black Toyota hatchback with no plates pulled into the lot and screeched to a stop beside the BMW. Two figures, dressed in all black complete with ski masks, jumped out of the Toyota. One put Terri in a headlock while the other injected her with something. They opened the back door to the BMW and tossed Terri inside. Once Terri was out of the way and Jeanne had a clear shot she took it hitting one of the assailants in the right bicep. Both of the kidnappers reacted to the shot by scrambling back into the Toyota, as she took more shots at them. She didn't score another hit on the kidnappers but she did manage to shoot out one of the cars side mirrors. She kept shooting until her clip was empty and then half ran, half slid down the steep embankment to the lot.

As Burrows sprinted towards Gillman's car, she heard the crunching sound of glass breaking beneath her boot. She'd stepped on the syringe. She cursed herself for potentially destroying the evidence as she wrenched to car door open to see if Terri was still alive. She was, very much so, her pupils dilated with terror as she lay paralyzed in the back of her car.

"It's alright," she assured her. "The drug wears off in about ten minutes. They took off. I'm going to take you back to…" She didn't get to say much else as she was zapped with a stun gun and hauled into the back of a van.

When she became aware again she was lying on a padded bench in Vito Grizolli's kitchen and her head was killing her. She sat up and immediately heard the distinctive click of rounds being chambered. She opened her eyes and saw no less than four guns pointed at her.

"You have some explaining to do," Vito said as he motioned for the weapons to be lowered. "If I don't like the explanation, you'll disappear."

She spent the next six hours in the kitchen going over everything she was privy to, answering the same questions repeatedly until Vito was satisfied.

"And you're saying Ranger hired you?" he asked for the fifteenth time.

"Yes, he and the Pixie have…"

"The Pixie? You didn't mention this before." A slow smile crept onto his face.

"I told you Ranger and his partner. That would be Meagan Santos AKA Tink or the Pixie."

"She goes by many more names than that," he chuckled. "I need to make some phone calls to verify your story. You will eat, you will sleep and then I will have more questions. Terri, take her to a room." He waved them both away dismissively and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

Terri was quiet as she led Jeanne through the long corridors of the house. "Are you all right?" Burrows asked.

"Yeah. Fine. I just need to sleep." Terri rubbed the back of her neck and rolled her shoulders to releave some tension, "You're lucky that drug wore off fast or you'd be dead. The gunshots brought my uncle and his cronies running."

"You have to go into hiding."

"Vito is working on it, but I'm not interested. I want to bring this bastard down," she snapped. "I'll go into hiding at Rangeman where I can actually be useful and you are going to talk Vito into agreeing with that arrangement." She ushered Burrows into a neat, if spartan, bedroom and locked her inside. As far as jail cells went, it wasn't complete shit. She'd certainly been in worse.

It was almost noon the next day when they finally came to retrieve her from the room. She was asked all the same questions yet again and finally Vito seemed satisfied.

"I don't like that the Pixie is working for the FBI; I'm worried this is a way to get information out of Terri regarding the family business." he said after a particularly prolonged silence.

"It's not. Read the papers. These murders are real."

"No doubt they are. It makes a convenient cover for scaring my princess into coming forward."

She was about to raise further protest when he held up his hand for silence, "I have spoken to my cousin in Italy. He says to trust the Pixie, he says that while she works for the government, she doesn't necessarily subscribe the their beliefs. So, for now, I will trust her, but I need to speak to her in person. You will set up a meeting between her and Ranger, and myself. If I find out that you have been lying to me and that you can't be trusted or that you were behind what happened to my little Angel, then you are going to find your life coming to an abrupt and undignified end."

"I understand." She took a deep breath, "What happened to the BMW? I shot one of the kidnappers and there might be spatter. We need the DNA that…"

"The car," He cut her off, "is being detailed as we speak. I can't allow that car to be taken as evidence that could be used against us. I'm sorry, Miss Burrows, but that's the way it has to be. Besides the blood of one of his henchmen isn't going to help you much. Now go. One of my men is going to drop you off at your car. You'll find it untouched."

She wasn't stupid. The first thing she did when she got to the car was sweep it for bugs and trackers. She found one she was sure belonged to Rangeman but disabled it anyway. There was a bug under the driver's seat and she promptly switched it off and put it into an evidence bag. Next she grabbed a camera, some evidence tags and some more bags from the trunk of her car. She was working for Rangeman and they were authorized to gather evidence. Slipping on a pair of gloves, she went down to the lot and bagged the glass and plastic from the mirror she shot out, photographed and bagged the remains of the syringe and the dirt around it in case they could test it for whatever drug that had been used on Terri. Then, finally, as luck and a bright sunny day would have it, she saw a few spots of blood on the ground. She photographed them then bagged the dirt as well. If she had any more luck, the bullet would have been a through and through and maybe, just maybe, she would find it. If she did, they could probably pull DNA from it. It took her an hour but she found the slug and bagged it, too, then drove straight to Rangeman.

RSRSRSRSRS

When she finished recounting the events of the night, Burrows sat on the edge of the dresser next to Julio. "Did you hit your head?" he asked her gently. She shook her head.

"I'm fine. Hungry and I have a headache but I'm fine."

"Bobby?" Julio asked and Bobby tossed him a penlight which he promptly shone into Jeanne Ellen's eyes. She glared at him. "Got anything interesting in that bag, Bobby?"

"If by interesting you mean anything stronger than Ibuprofen? The answer is no. The good stuff is in the Infirmary," Bobby replied.

"We'll hook you up later," Julio said with a wink. "Right now what you need is a warm bed and I know the perfect headache remedy. It's all natural and you'll feel like a million bucks afterwards. I promise." His voice was warm and a slight flush to her cheeks was the only reaction she had to his subtly seductive voice.

Hector rolled his eyes dramatically and 'accidentally' elbowed Julio in the ribs rather hard. Obviously Julio and his brother shared ideas on the best way to cure a woman's headache as Lester's smirk was almost identical to the one Julio was sporting.

"Can it, primo," Ranger said almost indulgently.

"What? I was talking peppermint tea and lavender oil." Julio attempted to look innocent. He really tried hard but he failed absolutely miserably.

"Of course you were, Julio. Of course you were." Meagan muttered under her breath, "Can we watch the video yet Hec?"

He replied in Spanish and everyone made to adjourn to the living room. Meagan stood up and was immediately scooped up by Lester earning him a cocked eyebrow from his brother. "Glass in her feet."

"I'm fine. They don't even hurt much anymore, I'm capable of walking."

"Yeah but it's a good excuse to make them all jealous because I'm holding you. I mean these pajamas are phenomenal and I think Ella deserves a raise for finding them for you."

"I'll accept that reasoning" she grinned at him as he carried her out to the living room and sat in the corner of the massive sectional, He kicked his feet out and put them on the coffee table and she nestled under his arm like she did for almost every movie night I'd ever been to in this place. Bobby arranged the IV stand behind her and checked to make sure everything was working properly. When he was done, he tossed a throw over Meagan and she promptly drew her knees to her chest. Bobby vaulted over the back of the sofa and she stretched out draping her legs over Bobby's lap. He arranged the blanket around her legs and then rested his own feet on the coffee table. This too was part of the normal seating arrangements for movie night. It wasn't even unheard of for Bobby to absently massage Meagan's calves while watching the movie.

It wasn't my place to comment though I was dying of curiosity. I knew enough about Lester to know that he didn't share but he was far more understanding than Ranger. If the guys even looked at me funny, he got jealous. She cuddled Bobby if Lester wasn't available and Lester was completely cool with it. That was what you called trust.

Jeanne Ellen however had no compunction about commenting though (and by commenting I mean she raised an eyebrow at them) to which the three of them replied, "Just friends. Lester doesn't share." That earned a laugh from the rest of us.

"But you'd be open to it wouldn't you, Tink?" Burrows teased.

She considered Bobby for about ten seconds and then grinned, "Of course, I would be. Look at him? I'm not selfish though. I have Lester and it would be simply glutinous of me to keep Bobby too."

"Who says I'd have you?" Bobby teased, "You're rather irritating."

"You love me and you know it." She nudged him with her foot.

"Sometimes I wonder…" It could have degenerated from there, but Ranger folded his arms across his chest, The movement was smooth and very subtle, but to anyone who knew him it was a sign of annoyance and everyone shut up. Though Meagan did stick her tongue out at him in defiance and I swear he almost rolled his eyes at her.

Hector started speaking with Julio translating, "You were unconscious for several hours, since I doubt you want to watch hours of nothing, I edited most of that out. There were several cameras on you both at all times and I am just showing the best angles of each. If you see something you want a closer look at, I can probably get you a better angle."

"Thanks, Hec." Meagan said.

"It's driving me crazy. There is something wrong with this whole mess and I can't put my finger on what," I said. "I've watched it about a dozen times and I can't make it out."

I watched their reactions to watching themselves on camera. "Just like old times." Meagan said with an almost sad smile to Ranger. He barely nodded his head but didn't take his eyes off the screen. "Julio, would you go check on the kids working the counter later?"

"Of course, Amada," he replied.

The screen went blank as the video from the coffee shop ended and went to an empty cell. "I wish there was audio here," I said. "It would be nice to know what they say."

"Primo?" Ranger asked.

"Yup." Julio replied. He got up and stood closer to the 70-inch television. The door in the video opened and Ranger was dragged into the cell by two men. "He's a heavy fucker. How many hours do you think he spends in the gym?" Julio said. Of course, he could read lips. I mean why not? "I don't know. Probably a couple hours a day."

"Good guess," I teased and Ranger's lips tipped up even though he didn't actually smile. I was sitting to Lester's left on the sofa but Ranger was standing and leaning against the wall. Lester had his arm around the back of the sofa and his body heat was beckoning to me. It was chilly in the apartment so I shifted closer to him and he grabbed the back of my belt and dragged me the rest of the way over until my back was leaning up against his side and my legs were stretched out on the sofa. He then grabbed a throw off of the back of the sofa and tossed it over me.

Ranger raised an eyebrow at this quick little exchange, but didn't comment. "Lester's furnace-like qualities are one of the reasons I married him," Meagan observed and he dropped a kiss on the top of her forehead.

There was very little happening on screen. Ranger was lying in a heap on the floor and the room was empty. A few minutes later the door opened again. The two men who had dragged Ranger in and Anthony Beals entered the cell. Beals was cradling an unconscious Meagan in his arms.

"That's about the creepiest thing I think I've seen in a while," Meagan said.

"It gets weirder," I told her.

"Oy Spoilers!" Julio scolded. In the video the two men suspended two sets of shackles from hardware in the ceiling. Beals carried Meagan over to one set, his men attached them to her wrists and Beals released her, leaving her dangling from the ceiling, her feet not even close to touching the floor. Meagan frowned and both Bobby and Julio looked at her. Hanging like that for a protracted period of time should have caused damage to her joints.

"Just keep watching. I'm fine."

The men in the video started speaking again, "They are just cursing because Ranger is heavy," Julio said. They hung Ranger from the ceiling and Beals made sure his feet were flat, supporting his own body weight. "I don't want her injured more than necessary. We can't leave her like this. Cuff her to a chair."

The two men left and Beals stood alone in the room with Meagan and Ranger. He walked over to Ranger and examined him carefully. "Is there an angle where we can see what he's saying?" Julio asked. The screen seemed to spin so we could get a view of Beals. Hector backed up the video to where Beals started speaking, "You haven't changed," he said. He reached out and placed a palm flat on Ranger's chest and looked at him almost reverently. Then he let his hand drop and walked over to Meagan. Hector adjusted the angles again, Beals was about to open his mouth again but snapped it shut when the door opened behind him. The three of them carefully took Meagan down from the restraints and placed her gently in the chair. "I want the cuffs tight; she can slip them otherwise," Beals said. "I don't want them marking her skin though. She's delicate."

This drew an amused snort from every man in the room.

"Hey!" Meagan laughed, "I can be delicate!"

"Sure, Gorgeous," Lester and Bobby said in indulgent unison.

Video Meagan was finally fully restrained and Beals was left alone in the room with them again. He walked over to Meagan and carefully pulled the tie out of her hair. He pulled the mass of blonde to the side and cut a small lock of her hair away. He carefully placed the lock in a plastic bag and then bent so he could smell her hair. Real Meagan had gone really still watching this. If I were watching someone do that to me, I'd have a serious case of the heebie jeebies. It was hard to say what Meagan was feeling. Lester had tensed behind me; he wasn't happy, that was obvious. Beals didn't say anything more and left. The video shifted to an hour later and the three men returned.

"I know why you want her, but who's the dude?" One of the men asked.

"Her husband." Beals replied, "Do not underestimate him. Don't underestimate either of them. I have to go back to New Jersey and I'll return in the morning. If they wake up before then, I want you to dose them again."

"We got her twice. Is that gonna be a good idea, Sir?" one of the men asked.

"She'll be fine," Beals said.

"She'll be dead," Bobby muttered and gave her knee a squeeze like he was just double checking that she was still there. He did that a lot actually. She responded by leaning forward and giving his hand an affectionate squeeze.

Beals walked out of the room leaving the two men alone with Meagan and Ranger. They were staring at Meagan in a way that would have made me uncomfortable even if I didn't already know what was about to happen. Hector's jaw was tight. He'd seen this part a few times, too.

"Think they're real?" One of the men muttered "They are too perfect to be real."

"Only one way to find out," the other replied with a smirk. He crouched down in front of Meagan and squeezed one of her breasts, "They're real. Damn." He let her go then ran his hands up the insides of her thighs. "Think the boss will let us have a go when he's done with her?"

"I doubt it and if he catches you feeling up the goods before he gets back, he'll kill you."

"I say we have a little fun with her when she wakes up. If we dress her when we're done with her, he won't know. Any bruises could be from when we grabbed them."

"Fine, but don't mark her face or he'll be pissed."

"Until later, Beautiful." He stroked her cheek and walked out of the room. I glanced nervously at Meagan and Ranger. They were both smiling scary smiles. These guys were already dead and I got the feeling that they didn't really feel all that bad about it now.

The video skipped ahead again to when Ranger and Meagan woke up, "And I have no idea what they are saying because they aren't speaking any of the three languages I know." Julio said with a laugh.

"I was cursing in Finnish." Meagan said. We watched her get Ranger's belt off. Julio and Ranger looked mildly disturbed. Bobby, Hector and Joe had a glazed look in their eyes and Lester looked smug.

"She can work buttons like that, too." Lester grinned.

"Didn't need to know that, Primo," Ranger said. "I didn't even want to know she could do that with a belt."

"I just gotta ask though, Meagan," I put in. "Were you a pole dancer at some point because damn your thighs are strong."

"Desserts," everyone but Meagan and Jeanne Ellen said.

"It's a long story that involves a lot of alcohol and a dare. Joe's already heard it." Meagan explained, "Let's just say it's why Lester owed me that body shot when they invaded ladies' night."

Julio burst out laughing. We all looked at him, "She just told Ranger to stop being decorative." Even Ranger chuckled with the rest of us. She did something when she crouched over the body of the man who had groped her and all of the men yelled, "Whoa!" in disturbed appreciation.

"Ahh Justice." Meagan smirked.

"What did you do there?" I asked.

"She cut off his thumb," Julio said.

"And I'm gonna puke."

"Ranger said you'd say that when you saw that," Meagan said.

"Why.. Why… Why did you cut his thumb off?" I moaned.

"To unlock his phone." Meagan shrugged like it was no big thing.

"She should have taken his whole fucking hand," Lester growled.

"Yeah, but that would have been messy and it wouldn't have fit in my pocket."

We watched the rest of the video in silence. The only part of their escape that wasn't on video was the time they spent in the room that I assumed was the shrine to them, a fact they confirmed.

When it was over, Hector turned off the television.

"So now what?" Jeanne Ellen asked.

"Now Ranger and I comb through 11 years of our military records to see how we know Beals. Then Joe and I report in to the FBI and tell them that this is now a jurisdictional nightmare and Ranger and I may have to throw our weight around a bit to keep the lead in the investigations."

I had an idea now that I knew what they had been saying in the video, "You and Lester moved in together right after you met right?"

"Yes." Meagan adjusted so she could look at me, "What has that beautiful mind of yours figured out?"

It was said without a trace of irony and from someone as brilliant as Meagan it felt damned good to hear her say that.

"Well, he called Ranger your husband. I may be biased; but while there is a definite strong family resemblance between the Santos boys and Ranger and Marco, I don't think there's any way they could mistake one for the other. Maybe it's a girl thing; but even if they weren't all different heights, skin tones and builds, their eyes alone are all very distinctive. I haven't met Marco, but I'd bet money on him having eyes as striking as these three."

"Like melted milk chocolate," Meagan said; "but I honestly don't know if a guy would notice something like that." She nudged Bobby with her toe.

"Yeah, it's the first thing you notice when you see the four of them together," Bobby said, "mostly because of the way girls walk into walls around them."

"You're hardly hard on the eyes, B," Meagan said. "You've caused many girls to make asses of themselves, myself included, and I should be immune." She tipped her head back to look up at Lester, "What color were your grandfather's eyes?"

"Ric got Abuelo's eyes, though his eyes never went hard like Ric's do, and he was always smiling."

"Your point, Babe? I'm assuming you have one," Ranger interjected.

"My point is this you aren't identical, not even close, and Beals had a shrine to the two of you. He knows who you are assuming he saw the papers leading up to and after the reception so there's no way he mistakes you for Lester. Why then would he say that you were her husband?"

"Excellent question," Meagan said.

"So it's got me thinking, If he met you two, he must have seen your chemistry and I'm guessing that before she met Lester there was probably a little bit of unexplored sexual tension?"

"I'm not dead," Meagan said.

"He probably saw that and assumed, as close as you were, that you were more than just partners, and I'm guessing after you met Lester that tension was no longer there?"

"Actually as hard as this is going to be to believe, it was just after she met Bobby," Ranger said.

Startled, I turned to look at Meagan.

"Look at him!" She said defensively, "Ranger is like my brother, having a sexual attraction to him was disturbing. Then Bobby comes along and he's got the second best set of abs I've ever seen in my life. It was a relief, really, to not find Carlos the most attractive man around. Then Lester showed up and, well, he does have the best abs I've ever seen on a man and he's even hotter than Bobby. What's a girl to do?"

"I'm not sure how I feel about the turn this conversation has taken," Bobby said philosophically.

"I dunno if this is good or bad for you, man," Lester agreed. "I just know that it's going very well for me." His smile was still somewhat smug.

"How do you think I feel?" Julio interrupted, "She's never even looked at me as more than a big brother. Back when we were all still going to school she'd kiss these two idiots," referring to Hector and Ranger. "Never even looked at me twice and I'm better looking than either of them. It's sad really to be relegated to the big brother role…"

"Oh, shut up!" She laughed, "We met when I was 12 and I had a huge crush on you and you know it. I was just 12 and you were 18 and you still only saw me as a 12-year-old until I was 22 and you walked in on Lester and I going at it like rabbits against his bookshelf."

"She might have a point."

"Speaking of points, Plum here was about to make one," Burrows interrupted.

"My point is, I think that if he picked up on sexual tension between the two of you, then it was probably before you met Lester. You enlisted when you were 18, met up with Ranger when you were 20 and met Lester when you were 22, so that means you only have two years of military records to comb through."

"I'm sitting here wondering how you guys ever get anything done around here," Joe spoke up for the first time. He was seriously amused at Ranger's complete lack of control over the people in the room. It was the fact that it was basically all family in the room. If we'd been in a conference room, they wouldn't have been so unprofessional.

"That took an exceptionally long time for you to get to that point. We have other concerns here, like Terri. We need her in this building and Vito wants a meeting. Not to mention, what do we do about Beals now? We can't send Cupcake back there. Not to mention that the Director is going to go completely out of his tree when he finds out that we have no evidence from the kidnapping and that not one of those men in the coffee shop has a single connection to Beals that we can find."

"Contact Vito and tell him that Ranger and I need to speak to him immediately," Meagan said to Burrows, "and then go get some sleep. You look like you need it." Burrows made the call, set the appointment up for an hour later and left.

As soon as she was gone, I asked Hector to start the video over again from the point where Meagan and Ranger woke up. I watched it through twice more.

"What." Joe asked, "you have that 'Dog with a Bone' look again."

"It's too easy," I blurted out what had been in my head for so long but felt stupid coming out of my mouth; but once I said it I couldn't have stopped my mouth from speaking if I had tried, "Think about it! He sends like twenty guys crashing into a Starbucks to grab you, loads you up with a shit load of drugs for transportation and tells his men not to underestimate you two. Yet he leaves only 8 men to guard you? There were at least four cameras in that cell and nobody saw Meagan climb Mount Rangemore but you met almost no resistance getting out of there. Every time you came across someone they were shocked to see you. Someone should have raised an alarm somewhere, but it didn't happen. Why?"

"She's hurting my ego, Carlos. Like really hurting it because she's completely right and we should have realized that. Yes, we have mad skills and no doubt we'd have gotten out no problem, but it was a little easy. I mean the man told them I could get out of cuffs. He obviously knew it was a stupid restraint to use on me so why would he?"

"Hermana, how long would the shackles have taken?"

"I dunno? I was kind of groggy, maybe fifteen minutes long enough for someone to notice if they were watch a rotating security feed."

"So why go through all that trouble to grab you if he was only going to let you go," I asked.

"I'm feeling so much less cool now. I mean at least it looked good," she muttered and I felt Lester shake with muted laughter behind me. Her grousing was rather adorable.

"It was still impressive, Tink." Bobby said, "I doubt I could have climbed Ranger like that." Ranger shuddered at the thought and we all laughed.

"Maybe it was a trial run?" Joe suggested, "Maybe it was to see what you were capable of."

Meagan looked at Lester's watch, "So the options are that he was stupid and underestimated us or for reasons passing all understanding he went through a lot of trouble to capture us only to let us go. Excellent." She unclipped the IV from her arm much to the protests of both Julio and Bobby. She waved them off and untangled herself from Lester and Bobby and got off the sofa. "I need to get dressed. I have to meet with a mob boss and I doubt he'll pay much attention to me in these clothes." Bobby and Julio were about to protest again so she assured them, "I'll leave the catheter in and you can pump me full of more fluids and whatever the hell else you think I need after I meet with Vito."

She left the room and came back ten minutes later dressed in a very nice pant suit and very soft black flats, "Yo pattern boy," she said.

"She means me," Julio said sotto voce. "What's up, Amada?"

"Go through everything. Find a pattern to the assaults. Help us nail this bastard."

"Already been through a lot of it. There's something with the addresses."

"Get Stephanie to help you." Ranger said, "She's good at spotting things we miss."

"Joey? You're with me. When we're done meeting with Vito we need to go speak to the Director," Meagan said and with that the party broke up.

AN: I have been trying to post this all week for you! My hope it works this time!


	8. Chapter 8

The meeting with Terri and Vito started off well. Meagan and Vito exchange pleasantries, talked about some mutual friends in the old country, and then Terri saw Joe and well it just sort of went down hill from there. It was nice to witness the Morelli temper without being on the receiving end of it for a change; but given everything that was going on, hearing Terri call Morelli enough names that I wanted to start taking notes so I could use them later, wasn't exactly productive. Meagan pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"They always been like this?" She asked Vito.

"Always. They will yell themselves out…."

"WELL IF YOU HAD JUST TOLD ME THE TRUTH INSTEAD OF LEADING ME ON I WOULDN'T HAVE BLOWN YOUR COVER, YOU IDIOT!"

"HAVE I EVER DODGED YOU WHEN I WASN'T GOING UNDERCOVER? USE YOUR FUCKING HEAD OR HAVE THE CHEMICALS YOU USE TO COLOR YOUR HAIR FINALLY SEEPED THROUGH AND AFFECTED YOUR BRAINS?"

"SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN AND I'LL LET THE GUYS AT THE PRECINCT KNOW WHERE EXACTLY YOU GO TO HAVE YOUR ASS WAXED."

"YOU DO THAT AND I'LL TELL ALL YOUR LITTLE FRIENDS JUST HOW MUCH EXTRA ASSISTANCE YOU ADD TO YOUR WONDERBRA!"

"eventually," Vito finished.

I leaned closer to Vito, "All we need is for Terri to be in her cheerleader uniform and the feeling of being back in high school will be complete." When it degenerated into the shouting match, Ranger and Lester had abandoned us having better things to do. What really was pissing me off was that I was starting to identify with Terri in this argument, and it was all I could do _not_ to step in and take her side against Joe. It was more than a little disturbing considering that we've always been rivals.

"Well, we don't have time for them to yell themselves out," Meagan said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small revolver. It was a little 22 and it wasn't loaded so she reached into another pocket and pulled some bullets out and remedied that problem. She pointed the gun at the window to her left and rapidly fired off three shots. Joe and Terri immediately dropped to the floor and covered their heads, I jumped about nine feet in the air, Vito stuck his finger in his ear to stop the ringing while Meagan calmly examined her cuticles.

"Huh. I need a manicure," she muttered.

On that statement the door burst opened behind us and Lester, Bobby and Ranger came rushing into the room, "Whoa whoa whoa." Lester gingerly walked up to his wife, "Baby, it's probably too early for you to be armed just yet." He put his hand over the weapon that wasn't actually pointed at anyone then lowered it. He took the gun from her and handed it to Bobby who passed it off to someone outside of the room.

That seemed to snap Joe and Terri out of their shock and they both hit their feet. "ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!" they both yelled at her.

"Well, yeah." The look on her face clearly indicated that they had asked a completely stupid question.

"What the hell were you doing?" Joe shouted.

"I have a headache and you guys were yelling. I needed to get your attention."

"Baby, I'm sorry but you could have just flashed the lights, we're practically programmed in grade school to shut up when someone flashes the lights, or you could have whistled. That works too." Lester chuckled nervously, "The gun was overkill."

She turned and patted his cheek, "Relax, handsome, it's full of blanks. Wouldn't have hurt anyone."

That's when we all realized the window she'd shot at was still in fact, intact. Vito was beaming at her, "My brother was right. I adore you, Pixie." She winked at him in response.

"Think we can get them to work now or should you and I go find some place quiet to talk?"

"Sit. If they start screaming at each other again, you can prove to me that the story about the stapler is true." He pulled out a seat for her and noticed the IV cath in her hand. "What's that for?"

"I was drugged last night." With that she launched into the story so far. The case, the kidnapping, the victims, all of it. I was surprised with how forthcoming she was about it.

"Why are you involved in this? A serial killer is interesting but below your pay grade." He asked when she was finished.

"We think he's involved in a human trafficking ring and we want to bring the ring down."

"Tell me about this ring?"

"You don't deal in people, Vito, at least not in this sense."

"True, but I might be able to point you in the right direction, speak to people you might not be in contact with. It's in my best interest to get this mook off the streets."

She handed around an edited version of the FBI file concerning the human trafficking ring and waited while Terri and Vito got caught up. I went through the file again to refresh my memory.

Two years ago the FBI received an anonymous tip about a sweat shop operating in Miami. When they raided it and began questioning the women from the sweatshop, three of the women, and I use that term loosely because they were 19, had the same story. They were all from different small Eastern European towns. They received letters from different German Universities offering them full scholarships and an all-expense-paid trip to tour the campus. Their instructions were to fly to Munich Airport where they would meet with a representative from the school who would escort them the rest of the way.

Once in Munich, they were drugged and put in the back of a cargo van. When they woke up, they were wearing different color scrubs-some wore white and some wore blue. The girls that wore blue were taken straight to the sweat shops. The ones who were wore white were fed fertility drugs and forced into prostitution until they became pregnant. Once they delivered, their babies were sold, and the women went up for auction and sold to the sweat shops or back into prostitution. Those in the sweat shop were told that once they'd worked off the cost of their medical expenses and their purchase price, they would be free to go. They made $10 a day and half of that they had to give back to pay for their meals. Their stories were put into the FBI database and they discovered that the same story had been popping up all over the country for the last six years.

A week after the raid they got another tip, this one about a cargo ship. The ship came in and they found a container with 20 women in it-all with the same story. While going over the manifest of companies with cargo on that particular freighter, Nadel Clothiers International stood out.

NCI, a massive uniform supply company, was the maker of the scrubs the girls in container were wearing. It was too big of a coincidence not to investigate further and more coincidences kept showing up. Like their European Headquarters was in Munich. Some of the women who testified had overheard the crew talking about when they were due to land in MIami and these dates coincided with dates that NCI had major shipments arrive in Miami as well. It was enough to start a full scale investigation into NCI.

NCI was founded by a man named Walter Nadel. A man of many interests, Nadel had his fingers in many pies, anything from textiles to real estate and he made a lot of money doing it. Fifteen years ago, after being diagnosed with ALS, Walter was faced with a tough decision. Who would inherit his business? He was the father of 4 highly intelligent, well-educated children, all of whom had been working for his various companies since they had been legally allowed to hold paying jobs. His solution was to sell off all but his four top money makers and leave one company to each of his four children. The profits of the sales of the other companies were divided equally among his children; the rest of his assets were liquidated and divided up amongst his 11 grandchildren and 28 great grandchildren.

His youngest child, a daughter named Margaret, met and married an Army Captain by the name of Anthony Beals. Beals had received an Other Than Honorable discharge from the Army for failure to follow orders and was finding it difficult to find work. He came from a wealthy family himself but he was bored not being able to work. Upon receiving her inheritance from her father and having zero interest in working outside of the home, Margaret promptly signed the company over to her husband.

At the time NCI was making a steady profit manufacturing nothing but school uniforms, but the company was starting to stagnate and in 2008 they were hit hard. That's when Beals had the company expand into workplace uniforms. While others were losing money, NCI was cleaning up.

Around the same time, the first stories of the trafficking scheme started showing up. In every city where the authorities found women with the same story as the girls from the first sweatshop, NCI had a distribution center. About the time each of the women remember being in Munich, Beals was in Munich, and he was in the cities that had the auctions around the times of the auctions.

The problem-the reason they couldn't arrest him-was that all of the evidence was circumstantial. NCI was the leading global supplier of medical scrubs so the girls were wearing scrubs made by NCI was hardly a smoking gun and neither was the container of goods on a ship delivering thousands of containers. Simply being in a major city at the time of the auctions meant nothing because they couldn't prove he was involved.

During their investigation of Beals, an agent fresh out of the academy who was assigned to do grunt work on the trafficking case decided, for reasons passing understanding, to comb through newspapers looking for Beals. That's when she came across the first three Miami murders. Three times Beals appeared as either a feature in the Business Section or in the Society Pages of the paper and the next day the front page story would be of the home invasion and murder of a petite blonde woman with dark eyes. The stories and the murders were so spread out that nobody had connected them before. Once she found that she kept digging and found more bodies starting from 8 years prior to the beginning of the investigation until up to three years ago when the killings suddenly stopped.

Probably not so coincidentally, the last and (up until last night's killing) the most brutal of the murders, happened two days after the memorial service held for Meagan. There was nothing until January, again probably not a coincidence, another body showed up. Then Beals uprooted his family and moved them to New Jersey and the murders moved with them.

Vito read through the file, "You sure this is the guy doing the killings?"

"As sure as we can be without solid physical evidence. Everything we have is circumstantial much like the trafficking." Joe said.

"He's a patsy for the trafficking." Vito said, "I know who's running that circus and it ain't Tony Beals."

Meagan raised an eyebrow, "Who's doing it?"

"His name is Alphonso Abandonato. His family has a cheap clothing company that supplies big department stores. They use them as laundromats for some of their other less savory trade enterprises. He's been trying to break into the uniforms market for a while now. NCI keeps beating them out and Alphonso isn't so happy about it. He's been bringing his girls over to coincide with NCI shipments so that in the event of a bust you'd look at Beals. A public investigation of NCI would be very bad for business and would make room in the market for Alphonso's company."

"You know this how?"

"He told me over a poker game after he'd had too much to drink."

"But you wouldn't be willing to testify to that," Meagan said.

"And leave myself open to all kinds of questions about my own legitimate business practices? I will tell you, in an anonymous tip type fashion, that if you were to speak to Tommy Spellecki…"

"Tommy the Fish?" I clarified.

"That's him. He's what you would call a disgruntled employee. I'm sure he could be persuaded to testify and give evidence against his boss in exchange for protection and a deal."

Meagan rubbed her temples and put her sunglasses on, still rocking the headache I guess, "What's Tommy the Fish wanted for? Anything major?"

"He's a bagman mostly but he's been present to receive shipments in New York. I'll bet you find out he's been at most of the auctions around here," Vito said and stood.

"You're awfully free with the information. How do we know we aren't just getting rid of some of your competition for you?" Morelli demanded.

"Believe me, Morelli, this information isn't free. I wouldn't be volunteering anything if I didn't have orders to assist you in every way possible." He looked to Meagan, "This should make up for Prague."

She held his gaze and stated, "Beals is mine, Vito. Keep out of it and I'll consider Brussels even as well. If something happens to him and I find out your family is involved…"

"No need to continue that threat Little One, I'm not stupid. I have no desire to be on the receiving end of the wrath of all of the families because I got in your way."

"We understand each other then." Her voice was chilling and her black eyes glittered with the unspoken threat.

He nodded and walked out of the room.

"Do I want to know?" Ranger asked.

"I had to make some new friends after I died," Meagan said defensively, the hardness gone from her eyes. "I couldn't really trust many of the men I worked with; I was sure a lot of them were going to try to kill me. Alexander Ramos reminded me that while undercover I made some friends in some rather interesting places. I made sure I cultivated these friendships. If I am honest, it saved my ass quite a few times having people who could supply me with everything I needed from weapons to shelter without asking too many questions"

"What she means is that since she died nobody is sure where her loyalties lie and she's just fucking crazy enough that most of the major families in Europe decided that it was in their best interests not to piss her off," Terri said.

Meagan tossed her pen on the table and shrugged, "Well, you say potato."


End file.
